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Update all (Ctrl-A followed by F9) is no longer working

Anonymous
2011-08-05T10:57:52+00:00

Hi there,

I've worked with many documents in the past where the standard practice of Ctrl-A followed by F9 updates all the figure numbers, cross references etc. at once. It has stopped working for no apparent reason.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Cheers,

J

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Stefan Blom 342.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-08-08T10:47:21+00:00

How odd!

If you switch to the Backstage view (formerly Print Preview) and then back to your previous view (you can use Ctrl+F2 followed by ESC), then do the fields update correctly?

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  1. Stefan Blom 342.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-08-05T11:33:38+00:00

    If you right-click a single field, for example a cross-reference, then do you see Update Field on the context menu? If you see the option, but it is greyed out, the field(s) could be locked. Select all the fields and press Ctrl+Shift+F11 to unlock them.

    If the Update Field is missing completely, press Alt+F9 to reveal field codes. If you don't see anything such as { SEQ Figure } (for figure numbers) and { REF 111111 } (for cross-references), then it appears that your fields have been converted to static text.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-26T17:38:07+00:00

    Hi,

    Maybe your are in F-lock mode. Look for the "F-lock" key on your keyboard... Not all keyboard have this feature, but that could be the problem. 

    P-A

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  3. Stefan Blom 342.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-08-08T13:08:37+00:00

    I'm glad it worked for you. Switching to Backstage view (Print Preview) forces repagination, which updates certain fields in Word. I do find it peculiar that F9 doesn't work correctly with large selections.

    For more on updating fields in Word, see this KB article (including its linked articles):

    Which fields are updated when you open, repaginate, or print document

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211629/en-us/

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-08-08T12:57:26+00:00

    Hi,

    thank you for your solution.

    This worked both when I did CTRL-A F9 then went to backstage view and when I did not CTRL-A F9

    In backstage view it actually showed the correct "updated" fields despite it not doing so in the previous document. When I then pushed escape the fields were magically updated. It must be a bug of some sort.

    Thanks again.

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