field codes Archives - Darn Office

Remove Field Codes in Word

Field codes link to content inside or outside of documents (e.g. a table of contents). When this content is moved you’ll get a “Error! Reference not found.”, which at this point if you are not the author of the document makes it impossible to guess what the text may have said before. This is why it is advisable to remove field codes entirely before you distribute a final document to make sure important information is not lost.

The fastest way to do this is to select all text with CTRL + A and then press CTRL + SHIFT + F9 to remove all field codes. To remove field codes located in headers and footers (e.g. page numbers) you will have to click these separately and repeat the procedure.

More about field codes

How to toggle field codes on or off in Word

This is another issue that keeps coming back over and over again. Field codes normally look like normal text unless you move parts of the text, which may then result in an “Error! Reference not found.” message instead of the text (further down I’ll show you what field codes are if you don’t know). It would be thus very handy if we could make the field codes visible aka toggle field codes on and off.