Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Tool to View Field Codes.

Tools to View Field Codes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 7, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

You know you can use the Field Codes check box on the View tab of the Options dialog box to control whether or not field codes are displayed in your document. You may even know that you can use Alt+F9 to switch between field codes and their results. However, what if you are mouse-bound, and want to accomplish the same task quickly without resorting to the keyboard?

You can add a tool to any toolbar you want that will toggle between field codes and field results. To add such a tool to your toolbar, follow these steps:

Choose Customize from the Tools menu. This displays the Customize dialog box.
Make sure the Commands tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.

In the list of Categories, select View.
Select View Field Codes from the list of commands in the dialog box.
Use the mouse to drag the command (or button) from the dialog box to its new location on your toolbar. When you release the mouse button, a new icon appears on the toolbar.
Click on Close to dismiss the Customize dialog box.

Now, when you want to see your field coding, click on the new icon. Click again, and the results of the field codes are instead displayed.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (542) 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: Tool to View Field Codes.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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