the page numbering in all my word documents is completely goobered

Factual Questions
1

A little while ago, while working on some reports for work, all the page numbering for every documents I open in Word 2007 screwed up.

The documents should have the each page numbered in a running header in the following format:

Skald the Rhymer
Really Important File Due Monday: Page 1

Instead what appears is

Skald the Rhymer
Really Important File Due Monday: {Page *MERGEFORMAT}

or
Skald the Rhymer
Really Important File Due Monday: {Page}

The problem is clearly in the program rather than any one file; I have opened files which I hadn’t edited in months and the problem appears in all of them. I consulted the help files that come with Word, which, having come from Microsoft, were naturally written by evil monkeys. The help files directed me to go to the manage add-ons feature in the Word Menu; I did that with no luck. Next I tried repairing the program through the Programs & Features control panel, also as directed by Word Help; this also did nothing.

Any thoughts?

2

  1. Select All.

  2. Copy.

  3. Open Word Perfect.

  4. Paste.

I’m quite serious about this - any time I have a Word problem that needs to be fixed on short deadline, I just say ‘screw it’ and transfer to Word Perfect.

3

Go to Word Options -> Advanced -> Show document content and uncheck “Show field codes instead of their values”.

ETA: Or push Alt-F9.

But what Northern Piper said does have some merit: If you’ve ever on a deadline and a program craps out on you, just use a compatible program like Word Perfect, OpenOffice, Google Docs or even the Word Viewer.

4

What you’re looking at is the Word equivalent to the “reveal codes” mode the Wordperfect folks are always raving about.

So even though you see a bit of the document’s innards on-screen, those files will print normally from your instance of Word.

And if you sent that file to somebody else, it will appear normal to them on-screen in their copy of Word as well.

5

Also, the Print Preview option will usually show them as they will be printed, with the codes replaced with the actual values.

6

I thought I’d replied to this Saturday night, but the hampsters appear to have eaten that post. Thanks for your help, guys.