A scheme was proposed to generate the W-type entangled coherent states of three-cavity fields, after comparing the differences between the discrete-variable quantum information and the continuous-variable quantum information and taking into account that coherent states were presently of practical use and readily available. The scheme was based on the degenerate Raman interaction of a A-type three-level atom with a single-mode field. Three identical cavities were in coherent states and three identical atoms shared a W-type entangled state initially. Let the three atoms interact with the three cavity fields respectively, selected a proper interaction time and detected the three atoms after exiting from their respective cavity. Then the three-cavity fields were projected onto a W-type entangled coherent states. During the atom-field interaction the atoms have no probability of being populated in the upper level, then the atomic spontaneous emissions could be neglected. Therefore, the coherence of the system might be better maintained. Based on current cavity quantum electrodynamics technique, the scheme could be realized experimentally. The W-type entangled coherent states generated was expected to be useful in the continuous-variable quantum information processing. The scheme was generalized to prepare the W-type entangled coherent states of n-cavity fields (n＞3).