Page Number Based Fields Update Inconsistently?

The message you are putting on the blank page does not appear to be in a header or footer.

I generally use variations on the Macro by Graham Mayor on this page.

Installing Macros

Charles, thanks for the input.

You are correct...  the blank page message is in the main body text at the top of each new chapter's first page.

I tried Graham Mayor's code and added the TOC update, so my VBA now looks like the following.  The behavior hasn't changed... it appears as if the update stops functioning part way through the main body and where it stops isn't repeatable.

Sub UpdateAll()
Dim oStory As Range

For Each oStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
oStory.Fields.Update
If oStory.StoryType <> wdMainTextStory Then
While Not (oStory.NextStoryRange Is Nothing)
Set oStory = oStory.NextStoryRange
oStory.Fields.Update
Wend
End If
Next oStory
Set oStory = Nothing

    If ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents.Count = 1 Then _
     ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update

End Sub

If you want particular pages of your document to start on an Odd page, it is better to immediately precede them with an Odd Page Section Break.

The way you are trying to do it at the moment might work if you can cause the fields in the document to update starting with the first field in the document and working forwards to the last field.  I am not sure however that is the way in which fields in the document are updated.

Thanks Doug,  

The odd page section break is the approach we started with.  We abandoned that when we couldn't figure out how to get it to print the needed blank page message on the even pages.

Your second point about the order in which fields within the main body are updated may be the crux of the issue.  I have no clue about the default order, much less how to impose a sequence.

John Ashley

You say:

"Each chapter is ended with a page break. The first item on the next page is the following field...

This code is immediately followed by my new chapter header."

IMHO, you'd do better to not use manual page breaks. Instead, format the Style used for the Chapter headings with the 'Page break before' attribute and, at the end of each chapter, use a field coded as:

{IF{=MOD({PAGE},2)}= 1 "{QUOTE 12}Page {PAGE} intentionally left blank"}

You should be able to manage the updates with code no more complicated than:

Sub UpdateFields()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument
  .Fields.Update
  .PrintPreview
  .ClosePrintPreview
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Paul,  thanks.  

The VBA runs, but the behavior of the page breaks is still "strange".  

To try to answer the question, "Do all the field codes get executed when running the VBA?" I've modified the field codes so that it prints a time stamp regardless of whether it is an even or odd page.  It appears that all the codes are executed each time the macro runs, but still many times the following still happens:

(1)  some field code displayed page numbers don't always match the footer page numbers

(2)  the blank page message gets printed on some odd numbered pages (with an even number in the blank page message)

(3) and some first pages of chapters get placed on even pages without any blank message getting printed.

I did a quick check of using the "Page break before" attribute and the modified field code and it didn't appear to help, but I can't claim to have checked it exhaustively yet.