Displaying content control help in a protected form

[Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen]

I'm rather frustrated with the content controls i Word 2007 templates.
My object is to make a template where 95 % of all text is predefined
and locked for editing. This is fairly easy to obtain using content
controls in Word 2007 and locking the rest of the text (using either
protect document or groups>properties). But I'm having a hard time
understanding why the help elements (title/tag) on a content control
are hidden when I protect the form against editing outside the content
controls.

Why can't I have protection and field help at the same time?

 

[Graham Mayor]

You certainly can have help displayed (in the status bar or by pressing F1)
if you use the legacy form fields in your document, as was the case with
earlier Word versions.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen]

Den 29-04-2008, skrev Graham Mayor:

You certainly can have help displayed (in the status bar or by pressing F1)
if you use the legacy form fields in your document, as was the case with
earlier Word versions.

I'm not using legacy form fields - I'm using the brand new content
control objects in Office 2007. Status bar help could be an o.k.
solution (if you have a link to a quick guide I would be happy to read
it) - but F1 help is not appropriate here. The setup is a document
template with 2-4 pages of text and perhaps 10 or 20 content fields.
The title displayed above each field would be just perfect - this is
what Word shows me when I enter design mode or leave the document
unprotected. But as soon as I enable the write protection, the small
field labels disappear, and the end user is left with the sample text
as the only guide.

 

[Graham Mayor]

My point was that you could use instead the legacy fields and provide the
help text that you need. With the content controls you can write the help in
the displayed text area. It is overwritten when the field if filled.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen]

Den 29-04-2008, skrev Graham Mayor:

My point was that you could use instead the legacy fields and provide the
help text that you need. With the content controls you can write the help in
the displayed text area. It is overwritten when the field if filled.

O.k. - now I've tried the legacy text field, and I found the option to
add help texts to the field. However I can't get any of these texts
displayed - tried both in my existing template, a new document based on
this template and finally in a brand new Word document - in all cases
the statusbar remains unchanged and the help window just displays the
standard "Word Help" when I press F1 (with the cursor placed in the
field).

It seems like all the "old" options to display help in Word - besides
the field help I've also tried to call the Office Assistant - are
buried, and their 2007 replacements are rather cumbersome to use - if
at all present.

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated. If I sound dissapointed,
it is with Office 2007, not with your answers. The choice to hide the
control titles outside design mode looks to me as a major flaw in Words
handling of user forms.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Help text that you type in the Help text dialog is displayed in the status
bar when you tab into the field
Help text that you type in the F1 dialog is displayed in a message box when
you press F1 with the cursor in that field. *Both require the form to be
locked*.

And the texts are separate so you could type Press F1 for help in the typed
help and the help that you want to display in the F1 dialog.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen]

Graham Mayor forklarede:

*Both require the form to be locked*.

Ah - that did the trick. This kind of help is just fine - it is just
rather strange that these help options are available in legacy element
and not in the new replacements.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Graham Mayor forklarede:

Ah - that did the trick. This kind of help is just fine - it is just
rather strange that these help options are available in legacy element
and not in the new replacements.

In terms of their maturity, content controls are "release 1.0" -- they're
only about half baked, and there's a lot more development to be done.

Your request to show the name in a protected document is a reasonable one,
and I'll help pass it along to the development team. Maybe they'll agree to
include it in a later version.

By the way, you may not be aware of an alternative to forms protection when
using content controls. This won't improve your "help" situation, but it
does have some advantages... First create the form, using text and content
controls (but not any legacy controls). Then select the entire document body
and click the Rich Text content control button -- this encloses the whole
thing in a rich text control. In that control's Properties dialog, check
both "Content control cannot be deleted" and "Contents cannot be edited".

The result is that the inner content controls can be filled in, modified, or
formatted (if they support formatting) but the surrounding text cannot be
changed. Unlike forms protection, this method doesn't disable the spelling
checker, picture insertion (use a picture content control), and various
other things that used to require macros or couldn't be done at all.
Unfortunately, the content controls still don't support a help mechanism
other than the default text.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen]

By the way, you may not be aware of an alternative to forms protection when
using content controls.

[snip]

You're quite right - I didn't know that solution, but it certainly
looks interesting. Thank's a lot for your help.