Enter text in a field and have it appear as entered elsewhere

[Gregory Winters]

I'm creating a template for users who don't want to do a lot of typing, yet
want to know that everything they enter is duplicated in the correct spots as
entered in the original spot (the text itself), but as formatted elsewhere in
a single document.

For example, I've created a MacroButton Field with a MacroName DoFieldClick
which will allow the user to simply type in text and it will be formatted
automatically as previously designed. Let's say I want this exact text to
appear in a footer, yet formatted for that footer, simply by the fact that
the user enters it into the original Field.

I would appreciate a high level step by step as to how to do this. I've
tried searching Help and the Knowledge Base and even this Newsgroup, but I
must not be entering the correct search terms because I haven't found
anything about this, but it seems as though it would be a common thing to do.
Thanks.

Greg

 

[Jay Freedman]

See http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Repeating_Data.htm.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Thanks, Jay, but I haven't been able to get the techniques you have at that
link to work. The most promising, by far, is the Bookmark version, but the
big issue there is that it seems as though you can only bookmark *existing*
text, not the text that will appear in a field one the field is clicked.
When I create the REF field elsewhere in the doc, then all I get is 'Error!
Reference Source Not Found.' It seems to me that if we could fix this one
nit, I would be good to go. Thanks.

Greg

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Greg,

I assume that the Bookmark version you're referring to is #3 on that
page, and that you aren't using a protected form. You can simply type
one or more spaces, select it, and bookmark that. (Technically this
isn't a "field"; that term refers to a special object you create with
the Insert > Field dialog or the Ctrl+F9 shortcut.) The user can click
there and type their information. The problems with this are (a) the
space is invisible unless the user has the bookmark brackets turned on
in Tools > Options > View, and (b) it's too easy to delete the
bookmark while trying to delete the text inside it.

For those reasons, you might want to look at a protected (a.k.a.
"online") form -- although it has its own drawbacks. For more on these
forms, see http://www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html#autoforms.

 

[Gregory Winters]

Jay:

I've reached the point where I know that I can't used the protected form
approach because this doc is a template, not a form, so I'm back to the
Bookmarks. I've created a workaround in which I add a space at the end of
the Source Field and incorporate that into the actual Bookmark. This way,
when the user clicks on the field to enter text, the Bookmark is not deleted
along with the prompt. Next, I created a REF field elsewhere in the document
to the Bookmark and the link is now working.

I have only one problem left: The process ignores the 'Preserve Formatting'
option in the Field Options. I DON'T want to preserve the formatting - I
want to have the text I enter in the Source field referenced in the REF
field, but I want the formatting in the REF field to be that which I designed
it originally. (My Source Field is Lucinda 18 PT Bold, and the linked REF
field is Arial 9 PT Regular.)

What is happening is that regardless of the status of the 'Preserve
Formatting' checkbox or if there is a MERGEFORMATTING switch in the Field
Codes, the Lucinda font is being pasted into the REF field and displayed in
the document. By the time the user has to go through all the keystrokes to
re-format the REF field to the Arial scheme, the original intent to save time
and effort is lost. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Greg,

The MERGEFORMAT switch doesn't do what you think it does. All it says is,
"when the field is updated, reapply whatever formatting the previous result
had."

Instead, you should replace the MERGEFORMAT switch with a CHARFORMAT switch.
This one says "whatever formatting is applied to the first character of the
field code in the Ref field will always be applied to the updated result."
Then format at least the R (and the whole REF) of the keyword in the field
code with the desired font.

You can find this, with examples, in the Help topic "Format (\*) field
switch".

 

[Gregory Winters]

Jay:

This works PERFECTLY. Thanks ever so much for your help, this really was
valuable. Ask Bill G. to cut you a check for supplementing his Help files.

Greg