Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Displaying Field Results Correctly

When you first insert a field code into a document, or when you create a new document with a field code in it, Word calculates the value of the field code and displays its results.

After the first time, however, field codes are never updated automatically, except when a file is opened. So, for example, if you create a new letter based on a template that has a {Date} field code, Word puts the current date in the new document. When you close and reopen the document, Word updates the field if necessary, but if you leave the document open overnight, the date won't change.

When you open a document containing a field, the field is updated automatically. There are two common ways to update a field manually—that is, ...