Updating Reference Fields

When the content, pagination, or entry fields in a document change, any reference features created with Word fields that are already in the document must be updated to reflect the change.

For example, suppose you wrote a report, complete with bookmarks, cross-references, a table of contents, and an index. You submitted the report to management and although they liked it, they decided to expand the report scope. As a result, you had to write another 20 report pages and insert them in the middle of the report.

As part of the editing process, you created new cross-references, bookmarks, headings, and index entries. The existing references are no longer correct; they omit headings and index entries and have incorrect page references. These references must be manually updated for the revised document.

By "manually" I mean you must take some action to update the fields. Fortunately, updating them is as easy as selecting them and choosing a menu command or pressing a keyboard key. Or you can instruct Word to automatically update the fields that produce indexes and tables before a document prints.

In this part of the chapter, I explain how to update reference fields to ensure that they are accurate in your Word documents.

To manually update indexes & tables

1.	Hold down the key and click anywhere in the reference field you want to update. A contextual menu like the one in Figure 76 appears. Figure 76. Holding down while clicking a reference field like this table of contents displays a contextual menu that enables you to update the field.
2.	Choose Update Field from the contextual menu.
3.	A dialog like the one in Figure 77 may appear. Select an option to indicate what you want to update: Figure 77. The Update Table of Contents dialog.

• Update page numbers only updates only the page numbers.

• Update entire table recreates the entire table from scratch.

The reference is updated to reflect current document contents and information.

Tips

• To update all reference fields in a document, choose Edit > Select All or press to select the entire document and press . Follow step 3 if necessary to complete the update. This will update all Word fields in the selection.

• In step 2, choosing Toggle Field Codes displays captions and cross-references as Word field codes. Although you probably won't want to view them this way, you may find it interesting to see how Word tracks this information internally. You can choose the command again to view the references as they will print.

To automatically update indexes & tables before printing

1.	Choose Word > Preferences to display the Preferences dialog.
2.	Click Print on the left side of the dialog to display Print options (Figure 78). Figure 78. The Print pane in Word's Preferences dialog.
3.	Turn on the Update fields check box.
4.	Click OK.

From that point forward, Word updates all Word fieldsincluding reference fieldsin the document before you print it.

Tip

• I recommend enabling this option for any document that contains reference fields. This can prevent you from printing the document with inaccurate information.