Microsoft KB Archive/134998

= WD: Certain Characters Do Not Display in Field Result =

Article ID: 134998

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 6.0a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0c
 * Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 95a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh
 * Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh
 * Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q134998





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:

146648 How to Use Quotation Marks in a Conditional Merge Result

