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: Printing Field Codes.

Printing Field Codes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 26, 2025)

If you use fields in your documents to any extent, you may want to print a copy of your document with field codes showing instead of field results. To do this, follow these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Print tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Print tab of the Options dialog box.

Make sure the Field Codes checkbox (in the Include with Document section) is selected.
Click on OK.
Print your document.

If you prefer, you can also make the setting change just before printing. Follow these steps:

Display the Print dialog box. (See Figure 2.) (The easiest way is to press Ctrl+P.)

Figure 2. The Print dialog box.

Click the Options button. Word displays the Print tab from the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Field Codes checkbox is selected.
Click OK to close the Options dialog box.
Make any other changes desired in the Print dialog box.
Click OK to print your document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (996) 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: Printing 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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