Inserting a Document's Path

Brian knows he can insert, in his document, the FILENAME field with the /p switch; this inserts the path and filename under which the document is stored. He would like, however, to only insert the path without the actual filename.

There are two ways you can approach this problem. The first is to modify how you use the FILENAME field in your document. When you insert the field, it should look similar to the following. (If you can't see the field code, place the insertion point within the field result and press Shift+F9.)

{ FILENAME \p }

What you want to do is change the field code so it looks like this:

{ FILENAME \p \* MERGEFORMAT }

Now, collapse the field by making sure the insertion point is within the code and pressing F9. The field results should still show the full path, along with the filename. Select the file name and then format it as hidden text. Even if the field is updated, the filename will remain as hidden text. As you learn in other WordTips, you can turn off the display of hidden text and you can cause hidden text to not be printed.

The second approach is to use a macro to insert just the information you need. This approach becomes necessary if you are using hidden text for other purposes. The following is an example of a macro that will insert the path:

Sub PathOnly()
    With ActiveDocument
        If Len(.Path) = 0 Then .Save
        Selection.TypeText .Path & "\"
    End With
End Sub

To use the macro, just put the insertion point where you want the path to appear and run it. If the document has not been saved (the only time the path length will be 0), then the user is prompted to save it. Because the macro inserts the path that is current when the macro is run, if you later change where the document is stored, you'll need to delete the old path from the document text and then run the macro again.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (391) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Inserting a Document's Path.