Mergefield Word

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As part of the development of our document merge tool, we work quite a bit with Microsoft Word templates. And naturally, our testing process requires us to create lots and lots of merge fields in Word. Now if you have worked with merge fields, you know that creating a merge field can be a bit tedious: You have to click Insert – Quick Parts – Field, scroll down in the Field names panel, click MergeField, and then type in the name of the field into the Field name box. And you have to do this for every field you need. That’s a lot of clicks, particularly when you want to create a good many merge fields.

Mergefield word

Being the lazy folks we are, we wanted to speed up this process. So we created a little WordBasic macro to help us along. With this macro in place, when we want to create a new merge field, all we need to do is

Format Merge Field Word

And naturally, our testing process requires us to create lots and lots of merge fields in Word. Now if you have worked with merge fields, you know that creating a merge field can be a bit tedious: You have to click Insert – Quick Parts – Field, scroll down in the Field names panel, click MergeField, and then type in the name of the field.

  1. Having multiple copies of the same merge field on the same page can cause the first record to be repeated in all instances of the merge field on that page. Use a Next Record rule beside each instance of the merge field that you want Word to move to the next record. This will force Word to go to the next record.
  2. Typing over a MergeField will not update it so it is important you follow the steps below when you want to alter a MergeField. If you need help inserting MergeFields into Word see Merge DET fields. Step 1 In your Word document, right-click the MergeField you want to modify.
  3. Here is an example of inserting a merge field in Microsoft Word 2002: Position your cursor at the point in your document where you want the merge field to appear. Choose menu items Insert Field. A dialog appears like that shown in the merge field in Microsoft Word 2002 image. Choose 'MergeField' from the list box on the left.
Word

Merge Fields

  1. type in the name of the field into the Word document, just the same way we type any other text;
  2. select the field name text; and
  3. click a button.

Merge Field Formatting Switches

Voila. The text is instantly converted into a merge field.

Below is the text of the macro.

Sub MakeMergeField()
Selection.Copy
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:= _
'MERGEFIELD '' + Selection.Text + '' ', PreserveFormatting:=True
End Sub

Microsoft Word Merge Field Formatting

And here are the steps for setting up a button for this macro in Word. Keep in mind that even though this list of steps seems a bit long, it’s actually quite straightfoward. This is a one-time setup, and you will have the button available anytime you want.

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Mergefield Word Format

  1. Make the Developer tab available in your Word ribbon. See directions for doing this in Word 2007 and Word 2010.
  2. Click Developer – Macros. In the resulting popup, type MakeMergeField in the Macro name box, and click the Create button. The Visual Basic editor appears, with the macro outline already set up, and the cursor placed in the macro body.
  3. Copy the three lines in the body of the macro text above (between the Sub and End Sub lines) and paste them into the body of the macro.
  4. Close the Visual Basic editor.
  5. Create a new button for this macro in your quick-access toolbar.

Here is a short video demonstrating the steps. Enjoy! We hope you find this useful.