Best way to create fill-in forms

[LurfysMa]

Can someone suggest a good way to create fill-in forms?

I need to create several forms similar to job or loan application
forms. They will have a lot of boxes where the applicant will fill in
(with a pen or pencil) information such as name, address, etc.

The problem is that the fields are all different sizes. Some fields,
such as addresses, are 5-6 inches wide whereas others, like gender,
are 0.25" wide.

I was thinking about a format

_____________________________________ __________________ _____
Name Date of birth Sex

____________________ ____________________ ____________________
Home phone Work phone Cell phone


I tried to set this up using tabs, but it's a real pain. I need leader
tabs for the lines and non-leader tabs for the labels.

I then tried it with tables. The hassle here is setting up tiny cells
in between each field to get the gap in the lines. It's also a bit of
a problem as Word does funny things when it sees consecutive table
rows with all different column widths. I could solve that by putting a
non-table line between each pair of rows.

My thrid try is also using tables, but with the label inside the cells
in small print (view with monospace font):

+----------------------------------+----------------+---------+
|Name |Date of birth |Sex |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------------------------------+----------------+---------+

+---------------------+---------------------+-----------------+
|Home phone |Work phone |Cell phone |
| | | |
| | | |
+---------------------+---------------------+-----------------+

This is the easiest to maintain, but the form looks a little cluttered
and the text in slightly in the way of the fill-in space.

I would appreciate any suggestions for better ways to do this.

Thanks

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/LinesInForms.htm and especially
the forms tutorials by Dian Chapman that this article links to.

 

[LurfysMa]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/LinesInForms.htm and especially
the forms tutorials by Dian Chapman that this article links to.

Thanks for the pointer. It looks like that tutorial is primarily for
forms that will be filled in on the computer.

The forms I am creating will be printed out and filled in by hand with
pen or pencil. I should have made that clear.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Sorry, I didn't mean to include the pointer to the forms tutorials; the
article itself tells you what you need to know.

 

[Sean Bishop]

Sorry, I didn't mean to include the pointer to the forms tutorials; the
article itself tells you what you need to know.





I do not know if this will help as I am a novice with Office but I created a table for A4 using 50 columns I was then able to merge cells for names, addesses etc and used the small boxes for numbers, spacing etc. It worked, but it was slow and I needed a few goes to get what I wanted. However it could be used, by filling in on the computer, or printing and handfilling, or both.