Signatures from a Drop-Down Menu

[FossMan]

I am really frustrated with this one.

I have created a form in which users can select data from drop-down fields
or fill-in-the-blank fields. The form works great, but now my bosses want
the form to be truly paperless -- i.e. they want the form to have selectable
supervisor signatures on it so supervisors can simply e-mail the form once
they approve it.

My thought on this was to create a drop-down list of supervisor names (e.g.,
Kelly, Cindy, Joe, etc.). The list of names would be in plain text. Once
selected from the drop-down, however, a graphic of the supervisor's signature
would appear.

Is this possible? Is there perhaps another way of going about this?

I need to keep this a form so users only have access to changing certain
fields.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The easiest way to do this is with an AutoTextList field (each signature
saved as an AutoText entry with the person's name--or part of it--as the
entry name), but I believe you would have to place this in an unprotected
section of the form. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/AutoTextList.htm for instructions on
using this field.

 

[FossMan]

Okay, that makes sense.

Now for the stupid question: how do you only protect part of a document?
--
C. Foster Payne
Musical Composer
Matsumura Seito karate instructor

The easiest way to do this is with an AutoTextList field (each signature
saved as an AutoText entry with the person's name--or part of it--as the
entry name), but I believe you would have to place this in an unprotected
section of the form. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/AutoTextList.htm for instructions on
using this field.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You have to insert one or more section breaks (depending on whether there
are more form fields after the signature). Then you have to go through the
Tools | Protect Document dialog or task pane (at least the first time)
rather than just use the padlock icon on the Forms toolbar. When the
document contains more than one section, you will be given the option to
select which sections to protect for forms.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Okay, that makes sense.

Now for the stupid question: how do you only protect part of a document?

 

[CyberTaz]

Just throwing out a thought here...

Do the 'bosses' understand that such a form will enable *any* user with
access to it to select the signature of *any* supervisor in the list?

If that isn't a concern, no problem. Otherwise there may be other approaches
to consider.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[FossMan]

What other approaches would there be?
--
C. Foster Payne
Musical Composer
Matsumura Seito karate instructor

 

[FossMan]

Suzanne, thank you so much for your feedback. It was really helpful and
works perfectly. However, when I e-mailed the document to one of my
supervisors, it no longer worked. It's like I have to set up the
AutoTextList on her computer as well. Is there any way to embed the
formatting?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

AutoText entries can be saved only in templates. You need to create your
form as a template and make sure that the AutoText entries are saved there
rather than in Normal.dot (which is the default location). If you select the
specific template in the Insert | AutoText | AutoText dialog, then it will
be the active template for any further entries you create with Alt+F3 (until
you change it back to Normal.dot).

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, one thought: you might consider inserting a UserName or UserInitials
field in an area that isn't editable (such as Header/Footer) so that the sig
added needs to match in order to confirm.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac