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: Formatting Text in Custom Document Properties.

Formatting Text in Custom Document Properties

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 1, 2015)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Mark asked if there is a way to apply character-level formatting (bold, italic, etc.) to text that is stored in a custom document property. The short answer is that there is no way to do this. There is, however, a way to apply formatting the field used to insert the document property into the body of your document. Follow these steps:

  1. Press Ctrl+F9 to insert a pair of field braces.
  2. Inside the field, type the following: docproperty Custom1 /* charformat
  3. Manually format the "d" in docproperty the way you want (bold, italics, etc.).
  4. Press F9 to update the field.

The above steps result in the document property being formatted with the same characteristic that you applied to the first character in step 3. If the document property has more than one word in it, you should realize that the formatting will only be applied to the first word in the result.

This, of course, won't help you if you need a more granular level of formatting. For instance, if the document property is a single-word company trademark and the first four characters are in regular type and the last five are in bold, then that level of formatting cannot be done through either document properties or in the field used to insert the document property.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (5412) 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: Formatting Text in Custom Document Properties.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Shifting Objects Off a Sheet

One day you are just editing your worksheet like you normally do, then you see an error that says "Cannot shift object ...

Discover More

Conditional Formatting for Errant Phone Numbers

Conditional formatting can be used to draw attention to all sorts of data based upon the criteria you specify. Here's how ...

Discover More

Updating Links

When you establish links between data on a target worksheet and data on a source worksheet, those links are typically ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Combining Documents

Need to combine quite a few text documents? A macro may be the easiest way to stuff them all into a single Word document.

Discover More

Picking Up in the Last Document Edited

Sometimes it seems that we focus on getting a particular document hammered out to the exclusion of other documents we ...

Discover More

Complex Searches for Documents

When working with lots of documents, you may have need from time to time to discover which of those documents contain ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is four less than 5?

2016-04-22 08:46:40

marais

Try perhaps to go to the developer tab and selecting the text and clicking design mode and then apply the changes you want


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.