Hello everyone

Is there a way to convert raw field codes to plain text, and later back again to field codes? I'm using Word 2003, but a solution for Word 2016 would also be fine.

What I mean is this:

Suppose you add a SYMBOL field code with the value of 111. If field code display is disabled, it will show up as the letter "o", but if field code display is enabled, it will show up as { SYMBOL 111 \* MERGEFORMAT }.

I want to convert the "{ SYMBOL 111 \* MERGEFORMAT }" to plain text (so that I can save the file as TXT, for example). Then, later, I want to open the TXT file in Word and convert the "{ SYMBOL 111 \* MERGEFORMAT }" text into an actual field code.

I want to do this because I want to process a certain type of MS Word file in an external program that handles only plain text files.

Thanks!
Samuel