Referencing Fields in Another Document

Tierney is trying to link fields in two different documents. For example, in an application document the applicant enters their name, business, the initial date and several other simple pieces of information. She would like the information in these fields to automatically populate fields in a separate word document.

Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this task is to use the INCLUDETEXT field. This field allows you to include text from one document in another. In Tierney's case, you begin by making sure that the text you want to include from the application document has bookmarks that define it. For instance, you could define a bookmark that notes the applicant's name (perhaps AppName) and another for the applicant's business (perhaps AppBusiness). If the application document is named Application.docx, then you could use the following field in the other document:

{ INCLUDETEXT "c:\\myfolder\\Application.docx" AppName }

The field indicates the absolute path to the application document, along with the name of the bookmark that defines the text you want to include. (You should replace "myfolder" with the name of the folder in which Application.docx is stored.) Note, as well, that the path to the document must include double backslashes instead of single backslashes.

You can include as many bookmarked fields from the application document in the other documents as you want, just use a separate INCLUDETEXT field for each piece of information you want to reference.

There is another thing to remember, as well—if you send the document to another person (the document that includes the INCLUDETEXT fields), that person won't get satisfactory results. Why? Because the file from which the AppName and AppBusiness information is being pulled is on your system, not on theirs. The solution to this is to convert the fields to text before you send the document out. Follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+A. Word selects the entire document.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+F9.
3. Save the document.

Step 2 is what converts all the fields in the selected text (the entire document because of step 1) to regular text. In other words, they will not update any more and the information previously pulled in by the INCLUDETEXT fields will be regular text.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10803) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Referencing Fields in Another Document.