Tab order and adding a field to your form

[MKay]

I have Publisher 2007.

1. I inserted a Response Form. There is no place for the person's name,
but all the other contact info has fields. There's no room to add a name.
I've looked for other customizable forms on the website and can't find them.
Ideas? If not, I can go to mycontactform.com, listed in one of the earlier
responses.

2. The fields do not tab in order. I found your instructions to use the
Arrange feature, but the order has not changed after trying multiple times.
Is there a different technique for 2007's version?

Thanks.

 

[DavidF]

Select any text box or form control in the Response Form, and look at the
bottom of the form. You will see a Grouping icon that looks like two boxes
overlapping. Click on the icon and Ungroup all the elements of the response
form and you will be able to customize the form layout and add as many form
controls as you need. Go to Insert > Text box, and Insert > Text area.

One of the things I noticed when I was working through your issue was that I
could not reset the tab order until I ungrouped the response form. Then I
noticed that the Comments text box was not grouped with the text area below
it, while every other text box and form control were grouped together. (For
example, click on the Address text box and you will see it is grouped with
the text area beside it.) So click on the Comments text box, hold down the
shift key and click on the text area below, and then with both elements
selected, click the grouping icon to group them together. Group the new Name
text box and text area if you insert them.

Now you can reset the tab order by selecting the form controls one by one
and Arrange > Order > Bring to Front. The tab order will be reset in the
order that you select the form controls. You can regroup all the elements of
the Response Form after you are done if you want.

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

Whoops. I meant to say go to Insert > Form Control > Text box, and Insert >
Form Control > Text area.

DavidF

 

[MKay]

Thanks for your response.

I did insert a "Name" field. I still can't get the form to tab in order and
I followed your instructions carefully.

Additionally, the top part of the form is in 10 point font, but the bottom
part is smaller and no matter what I do, I can't change the font.

Is there a free form out there from Microsoft that would help? I looked at
mycontactform.com, but don't want popup ads and the limits they place on
responses.

It just seems that Microsoft or a clever designer could have a template for
this.

Thank you.

 

[DavidF]

Once I ungrouped the whole form, and had the Comments text box grouped with
the text area under it, then I had no trouble resetting the tab order. If
you inserted a name field, did you group the *text box* with the *text
area*? Did you go to Insert > Form Control and choose a *text box* and then
a *text area*?

Then if you have everything grouped appropriately you click on, and select
the *text area* below the Comments text box > Arrange > Order > Bring to
front...or I found the keyboard shortcut faster...select the text areas and
Alt + F6. Work methodically and carefully down through the rest of the text
areas...do them all. Do a web page preview, put the cursor in the first text
area, and start tabbing...should work. If somewhere along the way it breaks,
then you didn't reset the tab order correctly. Try again.

There is no text that is anywhere in the default response form that I can't
select and change the font size. I don't know what you are doing wrong.

Just keep trying...you will get it to work.

If you only need a basic response form that has name, email address and a
Comment and text area, then perhaps a simple javascript form would serve you
better. What fields of information do you want to collect in your response
form?

David

 

[MKay]

Hi. You've been VERY HELPFUL. I don't know why, but I had to restart the
computer a couple of times before I could ungroup the text boxes.

I was able to create a form I liked, but the text boxes are not lined up
exactly and I've tried various methods. I have not given up!

As far as useful forms, mycontactform.com has several forms, that's pretty
much what people like me need, maybe with the addition of a security code
box. I'm sure a lot of people don't need only the more complicated forms
that are provided.

I've another issue and will start a new thread. Thanks again!

 

[Spike]

Have you tried selecting the boxes and use the "align" function found under
the arrange tab

Spike

 

[MKay]

Yes, I did try the Align function and that gave me text boxes off to the left
where a navigation menu rests, centered - which did not work for me, and off
to the right. I used the one off to the right and individually checked the
sizes of the boxes. There's got to be a better way. I tried using the
guides and several other things, too. Thanks for your input.

 

[MKay]

Update. I got fields that looked nice but couldn't get them to work. Using
alternatives at present as I've wasted more time than it's worth.