Microsoft Word Content Controls, 'Error! Not a valid link.'

Question

Hi,

I am a teacher and having to send out many, many emails to parents chasing up work at the moment. In order to try and make this easier I created a template and put in some content controls and copied the links into the text so that I could just input the specific details at the top of the page and then copy and paste the main content of the text into an email to send off. This was working well yesterday, however I have come back to it today, put when I input my information I am getting 'Error! Not a valid link' messages instead of it updating (see below).

The content controls I have used are 'Rich text', 'Combo box' and 'Date picker'.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

[](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/df7b7a23-53af-4ac4-b110-b35d4580e0a3?platform=QnA

Answer 1

Hi Tim,

Sorry for the trouble caused at your end.

Per my experience, when you copy the content controls from one document to another document, the content controls will be traveled with the document itself. But, as you mentioned “copied the links into the text “, can you please provide the complete steps taken at your end? It will help us to test in the same environment.

In addition, if possible, can you please share the sample Word document with us to test at our end? You can upload the document to OneDrive and share the link to access it.

Appreciate your understanding.

Best Regards,

Chitrahaas

Answer 2

This could be done with mail merge. See https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-mail-merge-for-bulk-email-letters-labels-and-envelopes-f488ed5b-b849-4c11-9cff-932c49474705.

Answer 3

Hi Chitrahaas,

Thank you for getting back to me. Just to let you know I'm not copying the content controls from one document to another, I am copying them within a document. The steps I take

1. Create the content control
2. Double click on it to highlight it and then copy it (ctrl+c)
3. I then select where I want the copy to go and click 'paste special'
4. In the dialog box I then select 'paste link' and 'unformatted text'

As I say, it worked the first time for me. I could put the information into the content controls and it would update the text below, but when I came back to it the next day it wasn't working.

Here is the link to the document https://1drv.ms/w/s!AuawDUoBVv8YnAn_TryhuKlUOqlB? e=QOl6Ua 

Thank you for helping me with this!

Tim

Answer 4

See the following page of Greg Maxey's website

https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/repeating_data.html

Answer 5

Hi Tim,

Thanks for sharing the steps taken and problematic Word document. After accessing the document and working on it, it says the following:

And pressing the Alt + F9 display the Field codes for the corrupted objects and objects are linked to the problematic document which you uploaded to your OneDrive. So, I guess you created the document and uploaded it OneDrive to share the link to students in your school. In the process, the objects in the documents are corrupted.

                                                   

In this scenario, I am afraid to convey that you need to restart the work but now instead of following the above procedure by copying and pasting the Content Controls, we request you follow either Stefan Blom or Doug Robbins suggestions to check the behavior.

Appreciate your patience and understanding. Have a good day and stay safe 😊

Best Regards,

Chitrahaas