Getting Information About Fields

Many of the tips on how to get the most out of Word involve the use of fields. The proper and creative use of fields can increase your productivity with Word quite substantially. The problem is there is no printed information provided with Word that tells you how to use the fields. (The Word documentation is worthless in this area.) The best way you can get information about fields is to use the on-line documentation in the following manner:

1. Make sure the Insert tab of the ribbon is displayed.
2. Click Quick Parts in the Text group, and in the resulting choices choose Field. Word displays the Field dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Field dialog box.

3. In the left column, use the Categories drop-down list to choose a category of field in which you are interested.
4. In the right column, make sure you can see the field about which you want more information.
5. Click on the question mark icon in the upper-right corner of the Field dialog box.
6. Click on the name of the field about which you want more information. Word displays detailed Help information about the field.

When you are through reviewing the help information on the field, you can close the Help window and continue with your use of Word.

Remember that if you are using Word included in Microsoft Office 365, step 5 above takes you to an online Microsoft Support page that lists field codes in Word. Scroll through the list until you find the field about which you want more information. Click on the link for that field code to display another page that describes that particular field code.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9741) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Getting Information About Fields.