How do I auto delete sections of a word document?

[Christopher Gibbons]

I have an explanatory document which I would like to have someone be
able to fill out section of the document with personalized
information, based on my instructions, but then delete the
instructions. I am using Word 2007. My thought was to have a text box
below each set of instructions (for the actual data being input), and
then have a button at the end of the document that you press to delete
all the instructions in the document. Is that even possible? I am a
complete Word newb, so I don't even understand the basics of macros -
though I could learn if pointed in the direction. More importantly, I
don't know my options - I stumbled on this group because of my google
searches into the topic.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/help.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Not quite what you had in mind, but see
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/document_user_instructions.htm.

If none of that suits your needs, post a reply to get more
suggestions. What you asked for can be done, but it's more trouble
than Greg's methods.

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

 

[Christopher Gibbons]

I can definitely see how that could work - though it seems to me that
the easiest thing would be the last thing he suggested - to just add
help text to a form field - rather than going to the trouble of
creating macros (which, to be honest, is a little intimidating). The
question that remains then is how to delete everything when they are
done. This will definitely make the document cleaner, but I would
really like to be able to completely delete the instructions.

 

[Jay Freedman]

If you add help text to a form field, there is nothing that needs to
be deleted. The help text is entirely hidden unless the cursor is
placed in the field again, and it only appears in the status bar.