How do I get rid of form field shading in Word?

[VTBean]

We've created several forms in which the form field is distinguised by yellow
shading. Once we've received the completed forms back from people, however,
I would like to be able to do away with the yellow shading, (or any shading
for that matter), to make it easier on the eyes for on-line viewing. Is this
possible?

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

We've created several forms in which the form field is distinguised by yellow
shading. Once we've received the completed forms back from people, however,
I would like to be able to do away with the yellow shading, (or any shading
for that matter), to make it easier on the eyes for on-line viewing. Is this
possible?

How did you apply that yellow shading?
Which tool/menu did you use?

 

[Gordon Bentley-Mix]

First question: How is the yellow shading applied? Have you simply applied
yellow highlighting to the formfields? If so, then a "find and replace" macro
designed to remove the highlighting from all formfields in the document
should do the trick. There are numerous examples of similar macros posted
throughout this forum that you can use as a starting point and post back if
you run into problems. I will leave it up to you to decide where this macro
should be stored (i.e. the Normal template [not recommended because of the
"fragile" nature of the Normal], a global template, the forms themselves
[also not recommended because the individual completing the form will then
have access to the macro]) and how to invoke the macro.

Second question: When you say "or any shading", is this specificially in
reference to formfields or to the entire document? In the first instance, you
can turn off field shading under Tools | Options --> View tab and then select
"Never" under "Field shading" in the "Show" section. However, this is a
user-specific setting (as opposed to a document-specific setting), so each
user will have to modify this setting individually. You _could_ incorporate
changing this setting into your macro to remove the yellow shading above, but
I wouldn't recommend it as changing settings like this without warning the
user and providing the option not to change it is bad design.

On the other hand, if you're talking about removing all shading from the
document, then it should be possible to tailor your macro to remove the
yellow shading from the formfields to remove all shading simply by modifying
what's being found. Alternatively, you could just open the document,
unprotect it if necessary, press Ctrl+A and select "None" for the highlight.
In fact, if the only thing that's highlighted in the document is the
formfields, this method might be the simplest solution to removing the yellow
shading.

Cheers!

Gordon

 

[fumei via OfficeKB.com]

Using Options > View to turn off shading turns off shading for ALL fields.
If you want to specifically, explicitly, turn off just formfield shading:

ActiveDocument.FormFields.Shaded = False

will do the trick. You do NOT have to unprotect the document to execute the
instruction.

There is a difference between shading and highlighting (your yellow). i am
not quite following what you are doing with that.

First question: How is the yellow shading applied? Have you simply applied
yellow highlighting to the formfields? If so, then a "find and replace" macro
designed to remove the highlighting from all formfields in the document
should do the trick. There are numerous examples of similar macros posted
throughout this forum that you can use as a starting point and post back if
you run into problems. I will leave it up to you to decide where this macro
should be stored (i.e. the Normal template [not recommended because of the
"fragile" nature of the Normal], a global template, the forms themselves
[also not recommended because the individual completing the form will then
have access to the macro]) and how to invoke the macro.

Second question: When you say "or any shading", is this specificially in
reference to formfields or to the entire document? In the first instance, you
can turn off field shading under Tools | Options --> View tab and then select
"Never" under "Field shading" in the "Show" section. However, this is a
user-specific setting (as opposed to a document-specific setting), so each
user will have to modify this setting individually. You _could_ incorporate
changing this setting into your macro to remove the yellow shading above, but
I wouldn't recommend it as changing settings like this without warning the
user and providing the option not to change it is bad design.

On the other hand, if you're talking about removing all shading from the
document, then it should be possible to tailor your macro to remove the
yellow shading from the formfields to remove all shading simply by modifying
what's being found. Alternatively, you could just open the document,
unprotect it if necessary, press Ctrl+A and select "None" for the highlight.
In fact, if the only thing that's highlighted in the document is the
formfields, this method might be the simplest solution to removing the yellow
shading.

Cheers!

Gordon

We've created several forms in which the form field is distinguised by yellow
shading. Once we've received the completed forms back from people, however,
I would like to be able to do away with the yellow shading, (or any shading
for that matter), to make it easier on the eyes for on-line viewing. Is this
possible?

 

[fumei via OfficeKB.com]

If you are using a highlight on the formfields - which you must have put
before you protected - then you have to unprotect the document to remove the
highlight.

Dim oFF As FormField

' remove shading
ActiveDocument.FormFields.Shaded = False

' unprotect
If ActiveDocument.ProtectionType = wdAllowOnlyFormFields Then
ActiveDocument.Unprotect
End If

' remove highlighting
For Each oFF In ActiveDocument.FormFields
oFF.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
Next

' re-protect
ActiveDocument.Protect wdAllowOnlyFormFields, _
NoReset:=True, Password:=""

Using Options > View to turn off shading turns off shading for ALL fields.
If you want to specifically, explicitly, turn off just formfield shading:

ActiveDocument.FormFields.Shaded = False

will do the trick. You do NOT have to unprotect the document to execute the
instruction.

There is a difference between shading and highlighting (your yellow). i am
not quite following what you are doing with that.

First question: How is the yellow shading applied? Have you simply applied
yellow highlighting to the formfields? If so, then a "find and replace" macro

[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]

 

[Louverril]

Hello VTBean,

I have exactly the same problem as you. Did you ever get a resolution? I
tried all the suggestions below but none of them work.

I add a form field, go to Tools|Protect Document. Check "Only allow this
type of editing in the document" and then make an exception for the form
field I just added.
There seem to be no way to remove the resulting shading.

Lou

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com]

On the formfields toolbar, click on the formfield shading button.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Louverril]

Doug,

I had already tried this - makes no difference. Please follow exactly what I
did as described above to prove it to yourself.

Lou

 

[Graham Mayor]

The form fields shading button on the forms toolbar (Developer toolbar in
Word 2007) toggles the display of the form field shading - whether or not
the form is protected. If it doesn't work for you, are you certain that the
shading is indeed form field shading and not some other type of shading? If
you are then you have a fault condition, probably caused by a minor
corruption in the Word data key in the registry (or possibly in the normal
template) - http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Louverril]

I have changed the document to use form fields instead of fillin-fields.

Plus used form protection and sections instead.

This has solved it .

Thnaks for your input.

Lou