Word Mailmerge Autotext & Mergefiels

[Barquentine]

I have a Word document that pulls data from my Excel data-source into the merge fields placed throughout the document.

Many of the fields (in data source and merged document) are just shorthand autotext codes.

So, after merging, I have to go through the document and F3 each piece of autotext to convert the codes (A2, C3, E7 whatever) into the autotext paragraphs I've set up as autotext.

Does anyone happen to know a way to instruct Word to press F3 for each autotext code in order to save me the time and effort? I found a mergefield 'switch code' called AUTOTEXT, but am not sure how to format the mergefield (which I toggle on and off with shift+F9).

Please note I know nothing about computers - I just search Google & Bing for how to do stuff - but after spending the whole of yesterday afternoon looking in vain, decided to see if any of you brainy Answerbank people might know the answer! Many thanks in anticipation.