WD: What Happens to Fields When You Save As Text Only

• Microsoft Word Macintosh Edition
• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.x, 7.x
• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, version 6.x
• Microsoft Word for Windows NT, version 6.0

SUMMARY

When you save a Word 6.x or later document as Text Only, MS-DOS Text, Text Only With Line Breaks, MS-DOS Text Only With Line Breaks, or Text With Layout, Word fields are treated as follows:

                 Text
                 Only /      Text
                 with        with
Field            breaks      layout    Comments
-----            ---------   ------    --------

Advance          No          No        An Advance field has no text
                                       result. The positioning effect
                                       is ignored.

Ask              See         See       An Ask field itself has no result.
                 Comment     Comment   Only the result of a REF field that
                                       references the result of an Ask
                                       field should appear in text output.
                                       However, the result of an Ask field
                                       currently does appear at the Ask
                                       field location when saving as Text
                                       Only, MS-DOS Text, Text with
                                       Layout, or MS-DOS Text with Layout.
                                       The problem does not occur when
                                       saving as Text with Line Breaks or
                                       MS-DOS Text with Line Breaks.

                                       Microsoft has confirmed this to be
                                       a problem in Word version 6.0. We
                                       are researching this problem and
                                       will post new information here in
                                       the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it
                                       becomes available.

Author           Yes         Yes

AutoNum          No          No

AutoNumLgl       No          No

AutoNumOut       No          No

AutoText         Yes         Yes

Barcode          No          No

Comments         Yes         Yes

Compare          Yes         Yes

CreateDate       Yes         Yes

Database         Yes         Yes

Date             Yes         Yes

EditTime         Yes         Yes

EQ               No          No

FileName         Yes         Yes

FileSize         Yes         Yes

Fill-in          Yes         Yes

GoToButton       No          No        GoToButton display text is not
                                       retained.

If               Yes         Yes       The text that results when the
                                       comparison is true or false is
                                       retained.

IncludePicture   No          No        There is no way to retain a picture
                                       in a plain text file.

IncludeText      Yes         Yes

Index            Yes         Yes

Info             Yes         Yes

Keywords         Yes         Yes

LastSavedBy      Yes         Yes

Link             No          No        A linked object is an OLE object,
                                       and there is no way to retain the
                                       pictorial result of an OLE object
                                       in a plain text file.

MacroButton      No          No        MacroButton display text is not
                                       retained.

MergeField       See         See       The field name is retained and is
                 Comment     Comment   delimited by two less-than and two
                                       greater than signs. For example,
                                       { MERGEFIELD Name \* MERGEFORMAT }
                                       becomes <<Name>>.

MergeRec         See         See       Same as above.
                 Comment     Comment

MergeSeq         See         See       Same as above.
                 Comment     Comment


Next             No          No

NextIf           No          No

NoteRef          Yes         Yes

NumChars         Yes         Yes

NumPages         Yes         Yes

NumWords         Yes         Yes

Page             Yes         Yes

PageRef          Yes         Yes

Print            No          No

PrintDate        Yes         Yes

Private          No          No

Quote            Yes         Yes

RD               No          No

Ref              Yes         Yes

RevNum           Yes         Yes

SaveDate         Yes         Yes

Section          Yes         Yes

SectionPages     Yes         Yes

Seq              Yes         Yes

Set              See         See       A Set field itself has no result.
                 Comment     Comment   Only the result of a REF field that
                                       references the result of a Set
                                       field should appear in text output.
                                       However, the result of a Set field
                                       currently does appear at the Set
                                       field location when saving as Text
                                       Only, MS-DOS Text, Text with
                                       Layout, or MS-DOS Text with Layout.
                                       The problem does not occur when
                                       saving as Text with Line Breaks or
                                       MS-DOS Text with Line Breaks.

                                       Microsoft has confirmed this to be
                                       a problem in Word version 6.0. We
                                       are researching this problem and
                                       will post new information here in
                                       the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it
                                       becomes available.

SkipIf           No          No

StyleRef         Yes         Yes

Subject          Yes         Yes

Symbol           No          No

TA               No          No

TC               No          See       When saving from Word for the
                             Comment   Macintosh, the content of a TC
                                       field is incorrectly retained at
                                       the location of the TC field. This
                                       problem does not occur with Word
                                       for Windows 6.0c or Word for
                                       Windows NT 6.0. Microsoft has
                                       confirmed this to be a problem in
                                       Word for the Macintosh version 6.0.

Template         Yes         Yes

Time             Yes         Yes

Title            Yes         Yes

TOA              Yes         Yes

TOC              Yes         Yes

UserAddress      Yes         Yes

UserInitials     Yes         Yes

UserName         Yes         Yes

XE               No          No 

MORE INFORMATION

In Word for Windows versions 2.0c and earlier, field instructions for fields with text results are written into the output text file. This problem no longer occurs in Word 6.x and later.

Additional query words: save saves saving saved convert converts converting converted translate translates translating translated conversion

Keywords : kbinterop kbconversion wordnt word8 kbfield macword98 winword ntword macword word6 word7 word95
Version : MACINTOSH:6.x; WINDOWS:6.x,7.x; winnt:6.0
Platform : MACINTOSH WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbinfo