Fields, Headers, and Footers

Inserting Fields

In Word 2000, if you have information that could possibly change, such as a page number or the last date the document was updated, you can use fields to automatically update that information for you. This is done by going to the Insert|Field menu.

The many different types of fields are divided up into categories with explanations for them at the bottom of the dialog box.

One prime example of a field is under the Document Information category. The FileName field allows you to insert the name of the file into your document. If you want, you can also click on the Options... button, which gives you more choices to control how the field is displayed. (commonly referred to as "switches")

For the FileName field, you can add the switch \p, which adds the directory path to the file name as well. Here is how it looks in a document.

The gray shading indicates that this is a field. If the field needs to be updated, such as a date or time field, you can click on the field and hit the [F9] key on the keyboard. That will update the field with the most recent information, just like the following example. Holding the [SHIFT] key while hitting [F9] toggles between the field code and the result of the field. <Click here to see a video demo of this.> (63K)