In theory the \*MERGEFORMAT switch is supposed to retain the format of the item being referenced and Microsoft in their wisdom insert it by default when you insert a field, though you can choose not to by unchecking the option 'Preserve formatting during updates'.



In practice it is probably best avoided. You can remove the switch from your document by displaying the field structure (ALT+F9) and use the Replace function, or see Change Word Field Formatting Switch

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Hello gmayor,


thank you, thank you very much for you answer.



I want to tell you another thing.

When I write my book, I create progressive, manually .docx backup (Word 2010).



So, I saw im my backup folder, some months ago I had these backup files:


49_Backup.docx (19:17 - 29/12/2018)
50_Backup.docx (03:24 - 27/01/2019)
52_Backup.docx (16:14 - 28/01/2019)
[...]



They are simple backups ( I don't remember exactly what I did... )



In the 49_Backup.docx , no one cross-reference has \*MERGEFORMAT switch


In the 50_Backup.docx , a lot, the same cross-references has \*MERGEFORMAT switch. Almost every cross-references in my book. But... I didn't do nothing!



Do you know why??? How can be possible that Word add this switch?



EDIT 01: and, what do you mean when you write: "to retain the format of the item being referenced "
I'm sorry, but I didn't understand well.. =(




Thank you =)