Converting Fields to Text

Special fields have a great number of uses in Word. You already know that you can use fields to insert everything from the date and time to summary information for a document. There may be times, however, when you don't want to use a field for information.

As an example, let's say that you have a template that includes a field for today's date in it. When you create a document based on the template, today's date appears in the document. You make changes to the document, and then save it to disk. When you later open the document, instead of the original date, it contains the date of when you opened the file.

To get around this, you need to change the field contents to plain text before you save the file. In this instance, you would follow these steps:

1. Create your new document based on the template. Today's date should appear, as normal.
2. Select the date in the document.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+F9. This converts the field to actual text. Thus, the date is switched from a field to real text for the date.
4. Make any other changes necessary in the document.
5. Save the document as normal.

That's it. The next time you open the document, the date remains unchanged. You can also use this technique with any other field to convert it to text.