Fields nested too deeply - using Quick Parts in Microsoft Outlook

Question

_{Friday, June 5, 2015 7:22 AM}

I have Microsoft Outlook Professional Plus 2013. I am using quick parts with  templates for my work. A week ago I began receiving an error "fields nested too deeply" when trying to scroll through the templates. Since then it does not really work. Sometimes the error pops up immediately when I click on quick parts, sometimes it lets  me scroll for a second or two first. How can I fix this?

All replies (5)

_{Tuesday, June 9, 2015 7:04 AM ✅Answered}

Hi,

Based on my research, this error happens when you are using a lot of nested fields in the Quick Parts, especially when it contains nested IF fields. It's recommended to use less complex statements with field codes. The following KB article is dated, by it might help:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/220250?wa=wsignin1.0

Regards,

Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

It's recommended to download and install Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), which is developed by Microsoft Support teams. Once the tool is installed, you can run it at any time to scan for hundreds of known issues in Office programs.

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_{Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:56 PM | 5 votes}

In the case of my customer, the Quick Parts that were getting the error contained just a picture. They have no nested field, no fields at all. Just text and clip art. Some of the Quick Parts just became corrupted. I had to figure out the following solution. I could not find any other way to open the Building Blocks Organizer to fix the corrupted Quick Parts. I have not been able to find anything on how to actually edit the Quick Parts to fix "Nested" field.

To edit the quick parts gallery and remove corrupted quick parts...

1. Open a new email.

2. Click into the body of the new email.

3. Click the Insert tab.

4. Click the Quick Parts drop down menu.

5. Right click on top of one of the Quick Parts.

6. Select Organize and Delete...

7. This will open the Building Blocks Organizer.

8. Click on each of the "Building Blocks" (Quick Parts / Templates).

9. If a Building Block is corrupted it will give the "Fields are nested too Deeply" error.  Click OK.

10. Click the Delete button at the bottom.

11. Repeat...

In my case there were only 5 corrupted Quick Part out of a couple dozen. So my customer was very happy that I could save most of them. I hope this helps someone else looking for quick solutions.

_{Sunday, January 8, 2017 10:44 PM}

Awesome, thank you, this solves the issue easily.

_{Thursday, June 1, 2017 3:33 PM}

This worked perfectly.   Thanks for sharing.

_{Wednesday, January 8, 2020 8:26 PM}

Thank you for this solution! This had been driving me crazy, for quite some time!

I also realized that, once I located the "corrupted" Building Block using your technique, I was able to "Insert" it into the new email, before I deleted it!

This way, you can easily recreate it... After deleting, just highlight the text in the new email, then click "Quick Parts", "Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery", to save it again. Of course, if it gets corrupted again, you may need to edit it, to figure out what is causing the corruption. 

Thanks again!