Can't insert StyleRef field

Question

I have done this before successfully in different documents, but for some reason it's not working now. I want to insert a form field linked to Heading 1 in my header and footer. To do this I go to Insert>Quick Parts>Field. Then when the Field dialog box shows up, I select StyleRef and select Heading 1 from the list of styles. This should insert the Heading 1 title into my header and footer. However, nothing happens. I don't even get an error message. I do have Heading 1s in my document. Does anyone have an idea what the problem is? I can always manually type in the name of the heading, but I'd rather not do that.

Answer 1

If you press Alt+F9, do you see the StyleRef field in the header? If so, then it is working, but it is picking up a blank Heading 1. Search for the Heading 1 style (starting at the top of the document), and you'll likely find an empty paragraph with the Heading 1 style applied. This might be a page break; if that's a problem, use Page Break Before formatting in the heading instead of a manual page break.

Answer 2

To expand a little on Suzanne's answer, by default the Style Ref field picks up the content of the closest paragraph before it styled in Heading 1 and ignores all Heading 1 paragraphs before that one. You can start from the StyleRef field and work backwards to find the misbehaving  or empty Heading 1 paragraph.

Answer 3

The problem seems to be limited to one page in my document. When I tried inserting the field on another page it worked.