form content disappears with select-all/update fields

[Barbara White]

Hi, everyone,

We're using Word 2003/Windows XP or Windows 2000.

I'm working with authors who used locked forms/tables in a Word file. I
have to reuse those forms in related (but separate) sections of the
manuscript that we're compiling.

I unlocked the forms/tables and copied them into another file;
everything looked fine. However, after I did a select-all/update fields,
the text in the forms disappeared and was replaced with grey rectangles.

The Word document isn't protected.
Clicking on the "lock" padlock in the Forms toolbar is ineffective.

How do I prevent the forms text from disappearing?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

After selecting everything, hold down the Shift and the Ctrl keys and then
press F9.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Barbara White]

After selecting everything, hold down the Shift and the Ctrl keys and then
press F9.

Magic! That worked. Thank you so much!

Barbara

 

[Barbara White]

After selecting everything, hold down the Shift and the Ctrl keys and then
press F9.

One more question.

After I do this (shift-ctrl-F9), the forms appear to be correctly
populated. However, after doing that, other aspects of the document
change. For example, the hyperlinking capability disappears in the
ToC/LoF/LoT and--most importantly--if I select-all, I can no longer
update the fields. The only way to be able to update the fields (after
doing a shift-ctrl-F9) is to do an Undo. (Doing another shift-ctrl-F9
doesn't toggle this behavior on/off.)

So I'm not sure if that's intentional behavior or not. It seems to me
that maybe by doing the shift-ctrl-F9, I'm sending the document into
some production state, but getting to that state seems to be a one-way
process.

Is there some way around this? I'm wondering if it's just a setting that
I've got to fix or if this behavior indicates some other thing.

?? Thanks for any help/guidance.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Ctrl+Shift+F9 unlinks fields (converts them to ordinary text). You didn't
tell us you had fields other than form fields. You could use Ctrl+A,
Ctrl+F11 to lock all the fields, then use Ctrl+Shift+F11 to unlock specific
fields for updating. Alternatively, you could select just the form fields
and unlink them.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Use a macro containing the following code to unprotect the document and
unlink the formfields:

Dim i As Long
With ActiveDocument
.Unprotect
For i = .FormFields.Count To 1 Step -1
.FormFields(i).Range.Fields.Unlink
Next i
End With


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Barbara White]

Thanks to both Doug and Suzanne for the help. You're right in that I
forgot to mention that the files contained other fields. I take it for
granted that everything contains a ToC. Thanks again. Very much.