Form Fields in a template

[Mary]

I have a variety of templates using form fields. I need to import specific
data into some of the form fields and the form needs to remain as a template
after the data is imported and separate templates need to be created after
the import. It must be locked for some sections as the user needs to be able
to fill-in the form fields. I have run into quite a few stumbling blocks.
I can't use a mail merge because it strips my field codes out that are not
being populated and the mail merge does not seem to work with templates.
Is there any other way I can populate form fields (or bookmarks) with data
from an excel workbook?

I did get one reply with a suggestion that is probably good for creating one
document, however, I didn't get a reply after providing the following
additional information. I need to take the one template and generate 500+
templates using records from an excel spreadsheet, (personalizing the
templates). Then the templates will be used by office staff to complete
online. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mary

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

You will need to use vba to develop a "roll-your-own" equivalent to mail
merge. Do each of the 500+ "templates" that you need to create really need
to be templates? Or, do you just need to create personalised documents
containing form fields that can be sent to inidividuals for them to
complete.

--
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

 

[Mary]

I'm sorry about posting to more than one board, I just wasn't really sure
where to post it and my other post got lost in the list.

Well, I guess at that point they could be locked documents. They need to be
saved with one of the Excel fields as the filename. But, yes after the
personalized fields are populated they can be documents.

But I'm not a programmer (my husband is). Can you further explain the vba
that he will need to write?

Thanks!!

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

He will need to write code that accesses the datasource and iterates through
it, creating a new document from the template for each record in the
datasouce and inserting the data from the fields in that record into the
required places in each new document. The inserting of those data could be
done by setting the values of variables in the document and having {
DOCVARIABLE } fields in the template so that when the code updates the
fields in the new document, the data is displayed in the {DOCVARIABLE }
fields, or, you could use FormFields and set the .Result of each FormField
to the data from the relevant field for each FormField, or you could have
the code insert the data into the .Range of Bookmarks in the template. The
code would then save the document with the name obtained from the field that
contains the data for the filename before moving onto the next record in the
data source and repeating the process.

--
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