Convert Field Codes (not results) to Text

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Hi, All —

I am not a VB programmer. I have a Word document with hundreds of field codes. I would like to convert these codes (not the results) to text. The VB script posted here will work for the fields one at a time. I have been unable to get it to work for all codes in the document (i.e., I need to individually select each code and run the macro). Any help on getting this script to find and convert all field codes in the document?

Thanks a bunch.

Matt

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Here is an inelegant macro that will pick up all field codes and copy them to another document. It doesn’t pick up the brackets on either end of the field code. You could probably do something to add them. Is this what you wanted, or did you want to have the code show in situ?

Put this macro wherever you keep macros. Make sure the document you want to grab field codes from is the active document. Run the macro.

Sub grabFieldCode()
Dim MyString As String, FieldShowSetting As Boolean
For Each aField In ActiveDocument.Fields
aField.Select
MyString = MyString & vbCr & Selection.Fields(1).Code.Text
Next aField
Documents.Add
ActiveDocument.Content.InsertAfter MyString
End Sub

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Thanks for the reply. Actually, I would like to convert the field codes in-situ.

I am using reference management software (RefWorks) to track citations in a document. I originally used an add-in for this (Write-N-Cite). However, this doesn’t work with 64-bit Word. Thus I have to use the RefWorks web service to create my bibliography, but it doesn’t recognize field codes themselves — it only recognizes the text in the field codes. So, each of my references is a field code that looks something like this:

{ADDIN RW.CITE{{24340 Radjai,Farhang 1998}}}

If I can convert that whole entity to plain text (which is what the macro I referenced does), I can then do two global search and replace (with nothing) operations to get:

{{24340 Radjai,Farhang 1998}}

which is what the RefWorks web service expects to see. Sorry for the long-winded explanation — and thanks again for the help.

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Ok, try this.

It probably won’t work for nested fields, and my ride is about to leave so I can’t do anything more with it. It also leaves field codes hidden. Turn ’em back on if you need to, or ditch the next-to-last line of the macro.
Sub plopFieldCode()
Dim MyString As String
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
For Each aField In ActiveDocument.Fields
aField.Select
MyString = “{ ” & Selection.Fields(1).Code.Text & ” }”
Selection.Text = MyString
Next aField
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
End Sub

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Thanks again — I get a compile error ‘variable not defined’ for ‘aField’. When I try to add it to the ‘Dim’ line, it still doesn’t work. Thoughts?

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Make sure you put Dim aField as Field.

If that doesn’t work I will get back to you in the morning.

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I don’t know if it would do what you want, but how about printing to pdf with the option of printing field codes rather than results. Send the pdf to your consultants with the original document. Remember to switch this option back when you are done because it will act on all documents, not just this one.

Not what you asked for but it may help. Converting all the field codes destroys them as Word fields anyway and messes up the layout of your document (probably). They should be able to get the information they need from the pdf.

Otherwise, here is a related post from macropod with code that puts the field code text into the Clipboard. I expect you could cycle through fields and apply it pasting to the document replacing the fields.

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//139777-Field-codes-to-text-or-string-to-allow-posting-repost-from-macropod

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That did it! Thanks a bunch — for some reason, when I added “, aField as Field” to the existing “Dim” line earlier, it didn’t work (or, I did something else wrong). When I added “Dim aField as Field” as its own line, it worked like a charm. I really appreciate the help.

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