Error in Word - "A valid number is required"

[Marg]

We have created a word document that contains form fields throughout. It
is a read only document; the user opens the document then saves it as "Joe's
Statement", for example. The text form fields are either of the type "text"
or "number". The document is stored on a shared drive.

We just upgraded our computers and server; all files on the shared drive
were copied to the new server. Since then, one person, who uses the shared
drive, has encountered problems with the word document that contains the form
fields. When she tabs to a form field that contains a type "number", she
gets an error message that reads "A valid number is required". She's typed
in, for example, 100000., but when she tabs out, this error message appears
and it won't let her out of the field she is in. Before we moved to the new
computers and server, she'd type in 100000, tab out and it would reformat to
$100,000. (Note: She has no problem with type "text" in this document - she
can type addresses and names, etc.) We had problems with our excel files -
during the switchover, the macro levels were changed from medium to high and
we had to change them back to medium - I thought it would be the same problem
with word even though there are no macros in this particular word document -
they too were set at high so I changed them to medium but this had no impact.
The problem appears to be specific to this one person's computer only; all
other users are able to open and fill in the document without any problems.
I've checked her settings under the options tab and they appear to be the
same as everyone else's, so I am at a loss as to what might be wroing.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what might be prompting this message?

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

Hello Marg

Marg wrote:
[..]

We just upgraded our computers and server; all files on the shared drive
were copied to the new server. Since then, one person, who uses the shared
drive, has encountered problems with the word document that contains the form
fields. When she tabs to a form field that contains a type "number", she
gets an error message that reads "A valid number is required". She's typed
in, for example, 100000., but when she tabs out, this error message appears
and it won't let her out of the field she is in. Before we moved to the new
computers and server, she'd type in 100000, tab out and it would reformat to
$100,000. (Note: She has no problem with type "text" in this document - she
can type addresses and names, etc.) We had problems with our excel files -
during the switchover, the macro levels were changed from medium to high and
we had to change them back to medium - I thought it would be the same problem
with word even though there are no macros in this particular word document -
they too were set at high so I changed them to medium but this had no impact.
The problem appears to be specific to this one person's computer only; all
other users are able to open and fill in the document without any problems.
I've checked her settings under the options tab and they appear to be the
same as everyone else's, so I am at a loss as to what might be wroing.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what might be prompting this message?

I'd check the regional settings on this machine. Maybe there's a
different setting in terms of thousands' separator there?

0.2¢
Robert

 

[Marg]

Hi Robert:

Thanks much for your suggestion. I checked the settings on the user's
machine and note that she has changed her settings to French (Canada) - she
is a bilingual clerk and issues some documents in French for Quebec, Canada
clients. I changed her settings back to English (United States) and then
went to the Word document and tried to insert numbers - lo and behold, it
worked! The only problem, now, is that the sequencing of a dollar figure in
Quebec is different from every other Province in Canada - rather than
$1,000,000., in Quebec, it is shown as 1 000 000 $. I'll play around with
the text form field options and see if I can customize the number format to
satisfy the language issues we face in Quebec. They don't want any "English"
stuff in their documents! Not sure if I can customize - if not, we'll make
do with what we have. At least she can use the document now!

Again, thanks very much for your help. It fixed the problem. Have a very
Happy New Year - all the best for 2010!

Cheers.

Marg

Hello Marg

Marg wrote:
[..]

We just upgraded our computers and server; all files on the shared drive
were copied to the new server. Since then, one person, who uses the shared
drive, has encountered problems with the word document that contains the form
fields. When she tabs to a form field that contains a type "number", she
gets an error message that reads "A valid number is required". She's typed
in, for example, 100000., but when she tabs out, this error message appears
and it won't let her out of the field she is in. Before we moved to the new
computers and server, she'd type in 100000, tab out and it would reformat to
$100,000. (Note: She has no problem with type "text" in this document - she
can type addresses and names, etc.) We had problems with our excel files -
during the switchover, the macro levels were changed from medium to high and
we had to change them back to medium - I thought it would be the same problem
with word even though there are no macros in this particular word document -
they too were set at high so I changed them to medium but this had no impact.
The problem appears to be specific to this one person's computer only; all
other users are able to open and fill in the document without any problems.
I've checked her settings under the options tab and they appear to be the
same as everyone else's, so I am at a loss as to what might be wroing.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what might be prompting this message?

I'd check the regional settings on this machine. Maybe there's a
different setting in terms of thousands' separator there?

0.2¢
Robert
--
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.

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

Hello Marg

Marg wrote:
[..]

Thanks much for your suggestion. I checked the settings on the user's
machine and note that she has changed her settings to French (Canada) - she
is a bilingual clerk and issues some documents in French for Quebec, Canada
clients. I changed her settings back to English (United States) and then
went to the Word document and tried to insert numbers - lo and behold, it
worked! [..]

glad it worked!

Again, thanks very much for your help. It fixed the problem. Have a very
Happy New Year - all the best for 2010!

Thank you, and dito!
Robert