cross reference update lock/unlocking

Question

I have a document that is over 200 pages long (PhD thesis) with captions and cross-referencing heavily throughout

• in Office 2007. I had a problem that when I pressed print, it updated and messed everything up, so I locked the document that it wouldnt update, and just unlocked briefly to update a paragraph at a time when it needed altering (and just re-print that page again).

I did this in December, and now I have forgotten how I did it, and need to make 3 adjustments. It was a combination of some kind using shift / control / alt and high F buttons (eg F8-F12) but cannot remember which combination it was.

Can anyone help me? this was also the way I locked / unlocked the updating of the TOC too.... help?!

Answer 1

It shouldn't make a difference on which computer you are trying to update fields.

If F9 shows/hides field codes, then something has happened to the keyboard assignments. In the Customize Keyboard dialog box, you can look at the current assignments and reassign as necessary.

I'm not sure I understand what happens to the equations when you update fields, or why they are even affected.

Answer 2

To unlock the fields in the selection, press Ctrl+Shift+F11. To update fields in the selection, press F9.

Normally, updating the whole document at once shouldn't make a mess of the text, though. A possible source of trouble is that one or more hidden bookmark (Word adds hidden bookmarks around cross-referenced text) has expanded to include undesired content. This may happen if you add content at the beginning of a cross-referenced paragraph, as opposed to adding content at the end of the preceding paragraph.

Answer 3

thanks very much.   This is definitely how I did before...   would there be any reason why this doesnt work now?  Nothing is updating at all now.  When I press F9 I get the field codes, when i press again, it reverts back to the orignal (wrong) cross reference.

I cannot update the whole document, as the equations ruin the whole text - hence i needed to update sections at a time.

Is it possible that it can only be done on the original computer the document was made on??  (same version of Office though!)