L
loosmi
Hi there, my company's software product has a feature that allows users to
generate forms from Word templates. The program auto fills some fields from
the SQL database and the user can fill in other data that they desire. So we
have a .dotx template that holds the design of the form, and then the user
gets the .docx file to fill out when they call it from our program.
The problem we're having is that some of our users have been finding that
the forms take an exceptionally long time to open up and then, once open, are
so slow to respond (scroll around, etc) that they're unusable. So in my
investigations so far, I've found out that the problem systems are one with
lower powered CPUs (unfortunately it happens for systems above our system
requirements) and the Word forms that cause the problems are ones with large
amount of ActiveX style checkboxes on them. I verified that reducing the
ActiveX checkboxes fixes the form loading problems.
So I have the following questions about solutions (we're using Word 2007):
1) Is there any way to configure Word, or some other settings, so that there
won't be such a strain opening a Word form with lots of ActiveX checkboxes?
Any way of speeding up Word's opening?
2) Using Legacy style checkboxes instead of the ActiveX ones makes the forms
load fine, but it looks like the user has to double-click the checkbox and
change Default Value->Checked. Is there a way to configure it so that they
can simply click on the checkbox to tick it? "Legacy Forms" checkbox as a
name kind of worries me (Legacy…), does that mean a future version of word at
some point wouldn't load the checkboxes because they're "legacy"?
3) Yes, it became clear to me after a little bit of research into solutions
that Word is not the tool for the job for forms like I'm describing. InfoPath
seems to be exactly what we should have been using all along but
unfortunately I wasn't involved in the decision making or development of
these forms, just tasked with coming up with a solution.
I'd appreciate answers to any of these, or if anyone has any other ideas for
solutions to this problem.
Thanks
generate forms from Word templates. The program auto fills some fields from
the SQL database and the user can fill in other data that they desire. So we
have a .dotx template that holds the design of the form, and then the user
gets the .docx file to fill out when they call it from our program.
The problem we're having is that some of our users have been finding that
the forms take an exceptionally long time to open up and then, once open, are
so slow to respond (scroll around, etc) that they're unusable. So in my
investigations so far, I've found out that the problem systems are one with
lower powered CPUs (unfortunately it happens for systems above our system
requirements) and the Word forms that cause the problems are ones with large
amount of ActiveX style checkboxes on them. I verified that reducing the
ActiveX checkboxes fixes the form loading problems.
So I have the following questions about solutions (we're using Word 2007):
1) Is there any way to configure Word, or some other settings, so that there
won't be such a strain opening a Word form with lots of ActiveX checkboxes?
Any way of speeding up Word's opening?
2) Using Legacy style checkboxes instead of the ActiveX ones makes the forms
load fine, but it looks like the user has to double-click the checkbox and
change Default Value->Checked. Is there a way to configure it so that they
can simply click on the checkbox to tick it? "Legacy Forms" checkbox as a
name kind of worries me (Legacy…), does that mean a future version of word at
some point wouldn't load the checkboxes because they're "legacy"?
3) Yes, it became clear to me after a little bit of research into solutions
that Word is not the tool for the job for forms like I'm describing. InfoPath
seems to be exactly what we should have been using all along but
unfortunately I wasn't involved in the decision making or development of
these forms, just tasked with coming up with a solution.
I'd appreciate answers to any of these, or if anyone has any other ideas for
solutions to this problem.
Thanks