WD: Certain Characters Do Not Display in Field Result

ID: Q134998

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
Microsoft Word for Windows NT, version 6.0
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1a

SYMPTOMS

The backslash ( \ ) and quotation mark ( " ) characters don't display in field results as you intended.

For example, the field

{FILLIN "Type "M" or "F" in the box."}

results in the dialog box showing only the word "Type," without the quotation marks.

CAUSE

The backslash and quotation mark characters are special characters in fields. The backslash is used to indicate the next character as a switch command in the field. Quotation marks are used to enclose literal text strings (see below) within a field.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, use a backslash (with no space) before the character you want to include. This tells Word that you want to include this character in the text string.

Preface a quotation mark with \ to make it display in a field code.

For example, the field

{FILLIN "Type \"M\" or \"F\" in the box."}

appears in the dialog box as:

Type "M" or "F" in the box.

You must also use an extra backslash in an INCLUDE field when you indicate a long Windows path. For example:

{includetext "c:\\winword\\docs\\start.doc"}

For more information about using special characters inside fields, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q146648 How to Use Quotation Marks in a Conditional Merge Result

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word User's Guide," version 6.0, Chapter 32, pages 731-741.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbfield word6 word7 word95 macword6
Version : MACINTOSH:6.0,6.0.1,6.0.1a; WINDOWS:6.0,6.0a,6.0c,7.0,7.0a; winnt:6.0
Platform : MACINTOSH WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbhowto