Maybe it is only in your post, but you have unmatched braces (more open than closed).

I checked my actual code again, and I made an error in showing the brackets in my post. I actually have them as follows:

{ = {INCLUDETEXT “02 Req.doc” BK !} + {PAGE} } of { = {INCLUDETEXT “02 Req.doc” BK !} + {NUMPAGES} }

I get two syntax errors rather than the desired page counts. Help, please!

Caroline

I kept working on this and was finally able to get it to work, but only if I put in the entire directory path, rather than just the name of the document. All documents are in the same folder, so theoretically, I should only have to use the document name. Any ideas as to why that doesn’t work? My preference would be to not use the full directory path.

Thanks,
Caroline

Hi Caroline:
Sorry I’ve been unable to get back to you sooner. With Includetext fields, you generally use the following syntax:
{ INCLUDETEXT “DriveFolderSubfolderfilename” }

The quotes are necessary in case there are spaces & note the use of DOUBLE backslashes. You can only avoid using the complete path if both the target & source documents are in the same folder.

If you want to send me the files in zip format or if you can post them here, I’ll take a look at it.

Hope this helps.

Hi Brian:
I assume you’ve looked at some of the previous posts. While I don’t have Word 2002, I know it works in 2000. Did you try putting in the full path & using double backslashes. And you must have bookmarked the {NUMPAGES} field in the previous chapter & then bookmark the combined field (after the “of”) in each subsequent chapter.

If you want, why don’t you post a couple of pages from each chapter here. You can garble the text if you want. Of course, when someone downloads it, their path will be different, but we can take a look at the fields.

Cheers,

Phil
Yes I did look at the previous posts. I tried putting in the full paths with double back slashes and I still get the same error message. !Invalid Character Setting

Now here is where it all gets a bit strange.

I was checking out Charles Kenyon’s post 91522 description and tutorials about the INCLUDETEXT field. I downloaded his tutorial files to an internet PC at work and then copied it to my own PC. I now had 2 identical copies of the tutorial on different PCs.

Both PCs run the same version of Word (XP) but one PC runs under Windows XP and my own runs under Windows 98.

On the PC running XP the footer was normal and read exactly as expected. On the W98 PC the exact same document footer had the error message as above !Invalid Character Setting

I copied and pasted Charles

I couldn’t tell anything from your attachment. A picture won’t help (the field codes are blocked anyhow). I wanted to see the actual document or a portion of it. Can you get any INCLUDETEXT field to work on this PC? for any file? even without the ! switch? The only other thing I can think of is that you have some setting under Control Panel/Regional Settings that make one or more characters in the field invalid. Do you get the same problem if you insert everything from the Insert/Field dialog box?

Sorry that the pictures were unhelpful I just wanted to show how strange the results were.

I am now including the two “Chapters” I am using to test the field codes on the WXP machine. In these I get the field codes to work. I note that if Ihe cursor is in the field and happen to press F9 then the codes no longer work and the only way to resurrect the situation is to close the document without saving.

When I copy these working docs to my W98 PC the field codes give the usual error message.

To say I am confused would be doing an injustice to confused people.
Brian

Hi Brian:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. When I looked at your files, I also got an error message, but it was different. It said: “Error! Unable to open file!” or “!Syntax error, !”, depending upon what I did. It took me awhile to get it to work, & quite honestly, I’m a little confused myself. Here’s what I did to get it to work.

1. If I changed the “Chapter 1.doc” to the full path with double backslashes, it worked.
2. If I went to Insert/File… & then selected the Range… button, I typed “bk” (no quotes). Then I selected the Chapter 1.doc file & inserted as a link right over one of your INCLUDETEXT fields. This worked, but had the full path. However, I could edit out the full path & add the ! at the end, update the field & it still worked!

Now get this!! You had 2 Includetext fields that referenced the same bookmark in the same file. If you compare what I did in Step 2 (which replaced only one of the two fields) with what you had in the second field, they are the same. All of a sudden both fields worked. I cannot figure out why they would not work before, but at least your not alone (small consolation).

For some reason, Word is having trouble with relative paths and I’m not sure why. I even tested this with other files I created and could find nothing on the knowledge base.