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#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
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 |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
Hi David,
First off, Word's help file explains the INCLUDTEXT field's usage pretty well. OK, so you want to change the filename. From your description it sounds like you've done everything except update the field after making the change. Simply changing the filename without updating the field isn't enough. Select the field and press F9 to update it. As for the square symbol you described, I can't see any reason for it being there. Usually, the only thing I'd expect to see after the filename is a bookmark name (if you're linking to a bookmark in the source document), and whatever field switches you're using. The other thing that seems to be missing from your field is the source filename's path. Sometimes you can get away without it, but I think you have to be adding the field to a document that's already been saved and have the source file in the same folder. Note that deleting the path from an existing field doesn't change the path Word uses to find the file. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] ------------------------- "unfrostedpoptart" wrote in message oups.com... 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 |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
On Mar 10, 7:27 pm, "macropod" wrote:
Hi David, First off, Word's help file explains the INCLUDTEXT field's usage pretty well. OK, so you want to change the filename. From your description it sounds like you've done everything except update the field after making the change. Simply changing the filename without updating the field isn't enough. Select the field and press F9 to update it. As for the square symbol you described, I can't see any reason for it being there. Usually, the only thing I'd expect to see after the filename is a bookmark name (if you're linking to a bookmark in the source document), and whatever field switches you're using. The other thing that seems to be missing from your field is the source filename's path. Sometimes you can get away without it, but I think you have to be adding the field to a document that's already been saved and have the source file in the same folder. Note that deleting the path from an existing field doesn't change the path Word uses to find the file. Thanks for the help. It sort-of works, but it's still not making sense. First, the path thing: the original document used absolute paths. In order to simplify things, I put everything in one directory and removed the paths. For some documents this is fine, but for some of them it doesn't, and I had to put back in the path! Then, to be even weirder, once it worked with the full path, I then removed everything but the filename, updated the field, and it still worked! This is what I had (not working) in the first place! I also don't understand why sometimes it inserts a lower-level paragraph with empty body text and sometimes it doesn't. David |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
Hi David,
Deleting the filepaths doesn't change where Word looks for the files - the only way to do that is to provide a new path (which you've now done). As for the 'lower-level paragraphs', I suspect this is something to do with that square character you referred to acting as a bookmark reference of some kind. Try deleting them and see what happens. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] ------------------------- "unfrostedpoptart" wrote in message oups.com... On Mar 10, 7:27 pm, "macropod" wrote: Hi David, First off, Word's help file explains the INCLUDTEXT field's usage pretty well. OK, so you want to change the filename. From your description it sounds like you've done everything except update the field after making the change. Simply changing the filename without updating the field isn't enough. Select the field and press F9 to update it. As for the square symbol you described, I can't see any reason for it being there. Usually, the only thing I'd expect to see after the filename is a bookmark name (if you're linking to a bookmark in the source document), and whatever field switches you're using. The other thing that seems to be missing from your field is the source filename's path. Sometimes you can get away without it, but I think you have to be adding the field to a document that's already been saved and have the source file in the same folder. Note that deleting the path from an existing field doesn't change the path Word uses to find the file. Thanks for the help. It sort-of works, but it's still not making sense. First, the path thing: the original document used absolute paths. In order to simplify things, I put everything in one directory and removed the paths. For some documents this is fine, but for some of them it doesn't, and I had to put back in the path! Then, to be even weirder, once it worked with the full path, I then removed everything but the filename, updated the field, and it still worked! This is what I had (not working) in the first place! I also don't understand why sometimes it inserts a lower-level paragraph with empty body text and sometimes it doesn't. David |
#5
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
unfrostedpoptart wrote:
Thanks for the help. It sort-of works, but it's still not making sense. First, the path thing: See if the discussion of FilePaths on this page helps at all (jump to appropriate subsection): http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfm...textfields.htm |
#6
Posted to microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
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going crazy - need help with INCLUDETEXT!!!
On Mar 11, 9:01 am, Daiya Mitchell
wrote: unfrostedpoptart wrote: Thanks for the help. It sort-of works, but it's still not making sense. First, the path thing: See if the discussion of FilePaths on this page helps at all (jump to appropriate subsection):http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfm...textfields.htm Thanks - this has lots of good info. I'm still seeing somewhat flaky behavior, but I think this part of the document explains it: ************************************************** ************************************* When Word sees a relative filepath in a document, instead of checking the filepath against the filepath of the document, Word uses the currently active folder to check the relative filepaths. For instance, if you opened the target doc, then opened the source doc, Word will measure all filepaths against the source doc, as that is the currently active folder. In the target doc, your relative filepaths will suddenly stop working and will show Error! Cannot open file. If you only open the target doc, however, or reopen the target doc after opening the source doc, the relative filepaths will work fine after updating them. Again, always be sure to update fields regularly, as sometimes everything will look okay but fail when you attempt to update it. Or vice versa-updating can fix a field that looked entirely incorrect. The really annoying thing about this behavior is that it's guaranteed to be intermittent. It will only cause a problem some of the time. You can go through the same actions, and sometimes all your links will fail, and sometimes they won't (since most of us don't pay attention to the invisible setting for the currently active folder in Word). Workaround 1: use relative filepaths, but go into FileProperties and set a "hyperlink base" for the document. Then Word should read all relative filepaths from that base, instead of checking against the currently active folder. Workaround 2: use absolute filepaths, but create a custom document property to store the base filepath (FilePropertiesCustom). Then use a DocProperty field to carry the path info into the IncludeText fields. You can easily change the custom document property in FileProperties. The nested fields might look like this: { INCLUDETEXT "{ DOCPROPERTY LinkFilePath }Source.doc" Bookmark } ************************************************** ************************************* I'll have to try some of these advanced workarounds. I wish we could just use FrameMaker! Thanks, David |
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