Pasting text into a content control in Word 2007?

[Torfinn Brokke]

Hello!

I'm trying to make a form in Word 2007 where I use content controls to
control the formatting of the text which is input, so that I can lock the
rest of the document for editing. However, I would like to be able to cut and
paste text into these content control fields, but I have not been able to
find a way to do so.

Is this possible? If yes: How?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?VG9yZmlubiBCcm9ra2U=?=,

I'm trying to make a form in Word 2007 where I use content controls to
control the formatting of the text which is input, so that I can lock the
rest of the document for editing. However, I would like to be able to cut and
paste text into these content control fields, but I have not been able to
find a way to do so.

Is this possible? If yes: How?

Could you please be more specific about the settings you're using, and give a
detailed scenario description about what's not working? I'm having trouble
following exactly what your after...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Torfinn Brokke]

Hello again!

I will try to explaing what I mean as clearly as possible.

I have made an electronic form in Word 2007 which is to serve as the
template for a number of study guides for an educational program. There are
lots of standard fields on each form, like what chapters to read, which
progress test to take, book references, etc.

As there is one such sheet per study frame (and there are a lot of study
frames), I wanted to make this form to simplify the making of these study
guides and ensure that the layout stays correct. What I did was the following:

I went to the menu Developer --> Controls in Word, to insert the content
control field which I wanted to use (mostly the "Rich text" control). After
inserting the controls I wanted, I proceeded with protecting the document and
allowing data entry only into form fields, to make sure no part of the
document can be changed apart from entering data into the content controls
that I placed.

This all works as it is supposed to. However, much of the data to be input
into this form already exists in other documents. Thus, I would like to copy
this text from the other document and paste it into the relevant content
control field in the study guides instead of having to type it in again.
However, this seems impossible. The content control fields seem to allow
neither data to be pasted into them nor data to be copied/cut from them. So,
what I was wondering is if there is some way to circumvent this?

I hope this has made the issue more clear to you.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Torfinn,

The problem is with the protection method. Content controls are not form
fields, and therefore protection that allows entry only in form fields will
block entry into content controls.

There is a different method for content controls: Select the entire
document, and then click the rich text content control button once more --
that inserts a content control that contains everything else. After you have
inserted all the text and interior content controls, open the Properties
dialog for the whole-document content control and check the box to prevent
editing of the control's contents. The text will be protected, while the
internal content controls will function normally.

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

 

[Beth Melton]

As an addition, to Jay's response, you need to select "Content Control
cannot be deleted" along with "Contents cannot be edited". Also, if you do
need to make modifications, just click Design Mode and you'll be able to
modify the protected content controls and the content inside.

Also, protecting the document for Fill-in In Forms doesn't exactly block
entry in content controls but it prevents the ability to copy/paste. I
believe this is a bug since these commands are enabled. Document Protection
also prevents Building Block content controls from functioning.

Personally, I'm with you - I LOVE the rich text content control method for
protecting only a portion of the document or the entire document. Document
protection had so many limitations and this is a great solution.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Torfinn Brokke]

Brilliant! This had exactly the effect I was looking for!

Thank you very much, Jay and Beth, for your help!


Best regards,
Torfinn Brokke

 

[Big Dave]

You may also want to try using the "Group" function (under "Design Mode" and
"Properties" in the Developer tab). If you make the whole document into a
content control group, all of the stuf not in content controls becomes locked.

 

[Najola]

You may also want to try using the "Group" function (under "Design Mode" and
"Properties" in the Developer tab). If you make the whole document into a
content control group, all of the stuf not in content controls becomes locked.

 

[Najola]

I've been searching for this information, but this forum was the only place I
found the answer. Just wanted to let you know it worked perfectly for me,
too. Thanks to all.