Can't protect document

[Rita Goldberg]

I am trying to create a form with text fields but find that I can't
protect the document. This option is grayed out both in the Forms
toolbar and in Tools. Am I omitting a step or doing something wrong?
(I'm using Word 2002 SP3).

Rita

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Hi, Rita,

It sounds like you're in Design Mode. If it's not displayed, right-click on
any toolbar and choose Visual Basic. The 2nd tool from the right should be
Exit Design Mode. Click that button and see if Tools - Protect is now
available.

Cheers,

 

[Rita Goldberg]

Hi, Rita,

It sounds like you're in Design Mode. If it's not displayed, right-click on
any toolbar and choose Visual Basic. The 2nd tool from the right should be
Exit Design Mode. Click that button and see if Tools - Protect is now
available.

Cheers,

Herb,

Thanks for your helpful reply. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse
since I wrote. When I restarted Word a number of the items had
disappeared from the Forms toolbar and only six remained. They aren't
available in the Customize menu, either, since only the same six are
shown. Thinking that something must have become corrupted, I ran Detect
and Repair, a lengthy process. That didn't help, and I now have only
those six possibilities in Forms. For example, text boxes and text
fields are no longer available. Do you have any thoughts on what I
should do next?

Rita

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

First, I have to wonder why tools are disappearing. The usual suspects are:

a) viruses; make sure your a/v software is up to date and scan your system
for viruses.

b) inadvertent use of the ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut command (the
latter is activated by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Hyphen; once activated, the mouse
pointer turns into a large black dash, and the next menu or toolbar item you
click on gets removed); choose Tools - Customize - Toolbars tab, click on
the Forms toolbar, and click Reset.

c) Adaptive tools/menus are enabled (choose Tools - Customize - Options tab,
and make sure that Always Show Full Menus is checked).

b) or c) should fix the Forms toolbar. But, the critter you want resides on
the Visual Basic toolbar, not the Forms toolbar. Right-click any toolbar and
choose Visual Basic. The 2nd tool from the right should be Exit Design
Mode.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

The Forms toolbar only has six items. The Controls Toolbox, which you
probably should _not_ be using, has many more! The Forms toolbar has the
tools that work in protected forms. The Controls Toolbox has a number of
tools, some of which look the same and have the same names as those from the
Forms toolbar, but which require vba to work, and often do not work in
protected forms.

What you are talking about is what Word calls an "online form." Check this
in help. For more about online forms, follow the links at
http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebresources.htm#Forms or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm especially Dian
Chapman's series of articles. You may also want to look at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/LinesInForms.htm.

Hope this helps,
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

When I start a pristine Word 2002, its Forms toolbar contains 10 tools. Not
six.

But, the one that's gotten him into trouble, I'm guessing is the Design
Mode tool on the VBA toolbar.

 

[Rita Goldberg]

Hi, Herb (and others). I tried all of Herb's suggestions, but nothing
helped. However, I restarted the computer a few times--and the third
time seemed to do the trick. This is not to say that I didn't do
something wrong as I was trying to create my form since, as often
happens when programs don't respond as expected, I tried many different
options. Now, everything seems fine, although I would have like to
identify the problem in order to avoid it in the future.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. Each one of them helped me learn
something more about Word.

Rita