[unfrostedpoptart]

Help!

I need help getting INCLUDETEXT to work. I'm pretty new to Word
(using 2000 & 2003), but I've been doing large, multi-file, technical
documents in FrameMaker for many years. I've inherited an old
document that needs lots of updating. It includes a couple dozen
other Word docs using the INCLUDETEXT field. I've been going crazy
for over a week trying to get the field to work right - once in a
while it does what I want, but the rest of the time, even though I'm
doing the exact same thing, it doesn't.

Details:
I'm working in Outline Mode, showing the field codes. All the
includes looked like this (which I have to type, because I also can't
figure out how to copy and paste the field codes - it just replaces it
with the included doc.)

+ { INCLUDETEXT "FILESNAME.doc"
[] }

Note: [] is my ASCII version of the little square symbol.

This works when I toggle field codes. Two big problems: First, I
need to change the included docs. I tried just selecting the filename
and changing it, but that didn't work. It just ignores the change! I
tried right-click, accept changes, but that didn't help.

Second, I tried entering in new field codes with Insert-Field. I
select INCLUDETEXT and enter the filename and also de-selected
Preserve formatting during updates (not that this had any effect).
Once in a while it puts in something that looks like the above
example, with the extra little square for body text. When it does
this, the field works and I can toggle show-fields and see the
included document. However, most of the time it looks like this:

- { INCLUDETEXT "FILESNAME.doc"}

and when I try and toggle show field codes it just says

Error! Not a valid filename.

And, yes, it is the correct filename. What is going on? This used to
work and still does about 1% of the time. What don't I know?

Many thanks!

David