HELLO TO EVERYBODY!!! (^____^)

this is my first message and I need your help for one questions: =)

I'm not very expert of MS Word, but I'm writing a small book and I'm using a cross-reference ( I don't know how to call this tool) for picture, paragraph and chapters. I have also a index at the beginning of the book.





PROBLEM #1




Today, I discovered that a lot of my "cross-references" (for example, Fig. 5.45) if I show the "Code", looks like this:



[REF_Ref504939385_ \h \* MERGEFORMAT]


The "funny things is that, some backup ago, the same field was simple:


pREF_Ref504939385_ \h]


And, if I create a new cross-referencefor the same picture, the "code" has no " MERGEFORMAT" text...


So, why does Word add this code? For what? How?

I tried to search in Internet, but without luck :/


Can you explain me?


thank you! ^__^

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 =)

I don't know why Word has added an unrequested mergeformat switch. Inserting a cross reference (or REF field) here does not add the switch.

It is supposed to (in the case of the REF field) insert the cross reference with the same format as the item referenced. Frankly I am not convinced the switch does anything useful as the results are apparently the same with or without it.

If you want the reference to be formatted as the surrounding text, use a CHARFORMAT switch.

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

Honestly, me too... I don't understand why...



So, from what I understand, this "switch" doesn't do nothing bad.
And... I can live with it =)





YOu wrote "It is supposed to (in the case of the REF field) insert the cross reference with the same format as the item referenced".


So, as "format" you mean the "style, the font size, color etc..."?



Sorry.. but I'm a bit newbie... =)

It shouldn't have any adverse effect on your document and you could ignore it.Yes.

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

Hi gmayor,


thank you for your support =)

I will leave these switches as they are right now.

We will see in the future ;-)

thank you from Italy