Automatically Display a Document's File Name, Path, and More!

When you are sharing a printed Microsoft Word 97/2000 document with other users, it is often helpful to provide the document's file name and path (or other important document properties) in a discreet location, such as in the footer. Typing this information directly into the document can be time-consuming if the document's properties change frequently. And if the file name changes, the person changing the file name might forget to update the footer.

Word lets you insert document properties by using field codes, which Word can automatically update when you print the document. If the document's properties change, so does the field result (the information displayed by the field code). This sounds difficult, but it is actually quite simple to do. Word includes the following commonly-used document property field codes as AutoText entries to make inserting them into your document easy:

• Filename
• Filename and Path
• Created by
• Created on
• Last Printed
• Last Saved by
• Page
• Page X of Y

An AutoText entry is a collection of text, such as a field code, that you save with a unique name to use again; Microsoft Word comes with a number of built-in AutoText entries.

Insert an AutoText entry containing a field

To insert any of the AutoText entries listed above into your document, just click AutoText on the Insert menu, click on Header and Footer, and then select information you want displayed. You can insert these AutoText entries anywhere in your document.

Insert a field directly

If the document property you want is not included as an AutoText entry, you can insert the field code directly with only a few more steps.

1. Click where you want to insert the field code.
2. On the Insert menu, click Field.
3. Under Categories, click Document Information, and then click the field you want under Field Names.
   You can click Options to see if the field has any additional display options you might want.
4. Click OK to insert the field.
   If you want to apply additional font formatting to the field result, make sure Preserve formatting during updates is selected.

You probably noticed that there are many different available fields in the Document Information category (and other categories). You can insert any of these fields into your document. If you are not sure what the field means, just click on it and a description will appear at the bottom of the dialog box. You can also right click on a field to view a Help topic that contains more detailed information about the field and how to use it.

Automatically update fields when you print your document

If you want to make sure that the most recent document information is displayed by the fields you inserted, you can set Word to update all the fields in a document each time you print it. Click Options on the Tools menu, and then select the Update fields check box on the Print tab. You can also manually update one or more fields by selecting text containing the fields (press CTRL+A if you want to select the entire document), right-clicking, and then selecting Update Fields.

For more information about fields or how to insert them, type about field codes or insert fields in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab, and then click Search.