how to clear up text field on click?

Can I edit text in a Word 2010 field without causing other problems, or is there a way to remove it from the field and make it normal text?

• When I click on the bibliographic part of some endnotes, grey highlighting appears over the full bibliographic citation, but not beyond it. Copying and pasting the full information replicates the behaviour, though I can copy part of it and have it become text. Right clicking in the area gives me no different options from the usual, and "Show All Formatting" reveals nothing out of the ordinary. When I choose the advanced option to show field codes, the content is replaced with { =0\*MERGEFORMAT}. The behaviour is not universal within the notes, but I can't find a way to get rid of it and have some concern about how those particular notes will end up exporting or what might happen if I edit within them.

• Answer:

  For a normal field code in Word, you can select the field code result and press Ctrl-Shift-F9 to unlink it. If that doesn't do it, press Ctrl-Shift-F11 to unlock it, and then try unlinking it. (Ctrl-F11 locks a field code; Shift-F9 will show you the field code; Alt-F9 toggles the view of all field codes; F9 will update a field code.) Tip: use the Word Options, Advanced dialog to set the Show field shading=Always. This way, any field code will display -- but not print -- with a grey backgrouond so you can easily differentiate between typed and generated content.