Formatting Field Results

Unless you add a switch inside the field to change formatting, the field result takes on the formatting of the first nonblank character of the field.

For example, if you have a field that says {Author} , with the "A" in Times New Roman, 10-point italic, the result of the field takes on that formatting: Douglas Adams.

Word has three different field switches that control the appearance and formatting of field code results.

General * Format Switches

The most common field switch is the general formatting switch:

* mergeformat

This switch tells Word to ignore the formatting of the first character of the field, and instead to use whatever formatting you apply to the field itself.

For example, say you're typing along in 12-point Garamond, and you insert a {NumWords} field (which shows the number of words in the document), using the Field dialog box. If you check the Preserve Formatting During Updates box, Word inserts a * mergeformat switch:

{NUMWORDS  * MERGEFORMAT}

With that switch in place, every time you update the field, it takes on the original formatting—Garamond 12 point—unless you apply some different formatting directly on the field result.

Formatting switches gives you an enormous amount of flexibility in how a field appears in your document—for example

* dollartext

converts a number—say, 123.45—into the kind of text you put on a check—one hundred twenty-three and 45/100.

* caps

capitalizes the initial letters of each word in the field result. Combine the two formatting switches with the = field, which evaluates numeric expressions, to get the field:

{= 123.45 * dollartext * caps}

which appears in your document as

One Hundred Twenty-Three And 45/100

The most useful formatting switches are detailed in Table 19.1.

Numeric # Picture Switches

Word also allows you to specify a numeric "picture" switch to be applied to numbers. This could come in handy if, for example, you calculate numbers in a table or bring them in for a merge, and you want to show negative numbers in parentheses.

The basic building blocks of field numeric pictures are as follows:

• Decimal point

• Thousands separator (typically a comma)

• Zero (digits that always appear)

• # sign (digits that are used only if necessary)

• Various combinations to format negative numbers; and literal text, which appears in the field result.

You could practically write an entire book on the nuances of numeric picture formatting. Rather than dwell on the details, examine the common numeric picture elements shown in Table 19.2.

Unless you specify a different format, Word always displays negative numbers with a leading minus sign. To force Word to show negative numbers in parentheses, you have to provide two formatting pictures, the first for positive numbers and the second for negatives, enclosed in quotes, separated by a semicolon. For example, this format

# "$,#.00;($,#.00)"

will show 0.123 as $.12 and –1234.56 as ($1,234.56).

Date-Time @ Format Switches

The date-time picture switch almost always appears in a {Date}, {Time} , {Createdate}, {Printdate} , or {Savedate} field. (The last three fields show when the document was created, last printed, or last saved.) The switch tells Word how to format the date or time. For example, add this field to a document:

{Date @ "MMMM d, yyyy - h:mm:ss AM/PM"}

When you open the document on the morning of Bill Gates'fiftieth birthday, Word updates the field and displays text that looks like this:

October 28, 2005 - 8:33:05 AM

The most common date-time picture elements are shown in Table 19.3.