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Why do some of my Word Documents have {Private} in the document but it does not print? I did not put it there but I can delete it. It randomly shows up in my work documents.
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Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
It is probable that the document originated in WordPerfect. You can toggle off the display of the field codes by using Alt+F9
Answer accepted by question author
To add to what Doug has said, if you don't intend to round-trip the document back into WordPerfect, you can with impunity just select the { PRIVATE } field in your document and delete it. It has no function in Word.
But what if this documented wasn't created in Word Perfect? I guess I just want to know the WHY as to it's suddenly there....
What I would like to know is how to prevent it from showing up to begin with. I only work in Word and think that most of the people who send me documents do so as well. But in any case, it's not something that I care to spend time on deleting every time it shows up, especially since I have to then send the documents to my clients.
Word's Field dialog describes the PRIVATE field this way: "Store data for documents converted from other file formats." Usually this means WordPerfect, but it could be some other format. In any case, the field has no functionality in Word. If it just suddenly appeared in a document that originated in Word and has never left it, then it is certainly mysterious but also useless and harmless. I understand your mystification but can't offer any explanation.