ChadSmiley Blog :: Refresh Fields in Microsoft Word

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The concept of having page numbers and other fields in Word to dynamically display information works and sounds great. The only drawback is getting the information to stay up to date. Yes, there is the F9 feature that refreshes all the selected fields. Having to remember to select all the text and then press F9 is not bad. But the headers and footers are not selected so they do not get updated. Each different header needs to be updated individually. This macro will update all the fields in each section of the active document.

Create Macro

Select Tools - Macro - Macros from the menu bar
Enter RefreshAllFields for the 'Macro Name'
Select 'Normal.doc' for 'Macros in'
Select 'Create' option

Copy the following text between Sub and End Sub
Paste into Visual Basic Editor

Sub RefreshAllFields()
'
' RefreshAllFields Macro
'
'

For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections.Count

If Not ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers Is Nothing Then

For h = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers.Count

x = ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers(h).Range.Fields.Update()

Next h
End If
x = ActiveDocument.Range.Fields.Update()
If Not ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers Is Nothing Then

For f = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers.Count
x = ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers(f).Range.Fields.Update()

Next f

End If

Next i

End Sub

Run Macro

Select Tools - Macro - Macros from the menu bar
Select RefreshAllFields for List of macros
Sit back and watch

I use this macro so often that I added it to my personal toolbar that is always displayed in every document.

Comments

1 - Thanks very much for the macro! Came in very handy.

Posted by Brian At 03:59:14 PM On 12/12/2007 | - Website - |

2 - I suppose I misunderstand the purpose of this macro.

I have tables in my document that give an overview of each chapter. They contain fields linked to bookmarks, which display the page number in the table. These page numbers don't update as I edit the document, so I have to go to each "overview" table and manually right-click and select "update field."

This macro doesn't update those fields. Emoticon

Posted by Tuck At 02:33:34 AM On 04/23/2008 | - Website - |

3 - Tuck,

the page numbers won't update as you edit the document. They will update when you run the macro. It's automates the right-clicking and selecint "update field" that you are doing.

I've tried other similar scripts but somehow they all mess up some references. This seems to work the best so far.

Posted by JT At 01:20:13 PM On 05/11/2008 | - Website - |

4 - Thanks for this macro, worked to a tea. Emoticon

Posted by akbr At 03:30:25 PM On 05/17/2008 | - Website - |

5 - Do you know a way to run this marco automatically when the Word document opens?

Alex

Posted by Alessandro Vernet At 02:42:15 PM On 05/21/2008 | - Website - |

6 - I am sure that there is a way, but I have not tried it.

Posted by Chad Schelfhout At 06:20:03 AM On 05/27/2008 | - Website - |

7 - Amazing! macro. This saved me a days worth of work! Whew!!! Super!

Posted by Meenal At 09:34:48 AM On 06/11/2008 | - Website - |

8 - This works for fields... but in a graphic rich document with lots of pasted screenshots, it will update every picture to be ONLY ONE picture, resized for each occurrence. I've tried a number of methods myself, but all such macros seem to do this...

Any way to filter out images when iterating through?

Posted by Ryan At 08:48:43 AM On 07/15/2008 | - Website - |

9 - thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!

Posted by Lisa At 11:02:50 AM On 02/05/2009 | - Website - |

10 - Is there a special reason you write so many loops?

I guess this would be enough:

ActiveDocument.Fields.Update

Posted by Tomalak At 05:38:51 AM On 04/15/2009 | - Website - |

11 -

I am using Word 2007. I get an error when I run this macro that says:
"Compile error:
Expected Funciton or variable
|
I click OK and see the x in this line highlighted in yellow:
|
x = ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers(h).Range.Fields.Update()
|
Maybe I'm on the wrong path. I have a doc that has 14 section breaks. I have a field for 'Version Number' in the footer and rather than going through the doc to each section and pressing Ctrl+A, F9, to update the version of the doc, I thought I would run this macro.

Do you think this macro will do what I want it to do?

Paul
phanson (at) quintrex dot com

Posted by Paul Hanson At 08:41:46 AM On 01/25/2010 | - Website - |

12 - Just two important things:
1. Declare your variables
2. Use Option Explicit

Nice script Emoticon

Posted by Nesse At 02:27:03 AM On 02/02/2010 | - Website - |