Underlining in form fields

[Les]

OK, I have a template that I created which is more or
less a giant table with a form field or drop-down menu in
each cell. One of my coworkers is using this form, and
wants to underline text within the form field. Not the
whole field, just a portion of the text.

After talking to him, it looks like almost everythign
that he wants to underline appears in a common form: XX-
#, where X is a capital letter and # is a number. Is
there any way, perhaps through a macro, for me to allow
him to do this, or to just have Word automatically
underline all instances of this sort of text?

Thanks,
Les

 

[Greg]

Les,

The following macro set to run on exit from each field
might work:

Sub UnderlineInField()
'
' Macro recorded June 9, 2004 by CDR Gregory K. Maxey

ActiveDocument.Unprotect
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Underline =
wdUnderlineSingle
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([A-Z]{2})-([0-9])"
.Replacement.Text = "\1-\2"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields,
NoReset:=True
End Sub

 

[Les]

I tried pasting that into my document, and it's giving me
an error on the fourth line, and the last two lines. It
says "syntax error" when I try to compile. I'm afraid I'm
not a programmer, so I don't really know how to fix that.

Thanks for you help, though! Let me know what to do to
fix it so I can try it to see if it works!

Les

-----Original Message-----
Les,

The following macro set to run on exit from each field
might work:

Sub UnderlineInField()
'
' Macro recorded June 9, 2004 by CDR Gregory K. Maxey

ActiveDocument.Unprotect
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Underline =
wdUnderlineSingle
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([A-Z]{2})-([0-9])"
.Replacement.Text = "\1-\2"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields,
NoReset:=True
End Sub

-----Original Message-----
OK, I have a template that I created which is more or
less a giant table with a form field or drop-down menu in
each cell. One of my coworkers is using this form, and
wants to underline text within the form field. Not the
whole field, just a portion of the text.

After talking to him, it looks like almost everythign
that he wants to underline appears in a common form: XX-
#, where X is a capital letter and # is a number. Is
there any way, perhaps through a macro, for me to allow
him to do this, or to just have Word automatically
underline all instances of this sort of text?

Thanks,
Les
.

.

 

[Les]

Would it be possible to have this macro run not on exit,
but as a shortcut key when the document is completed?

Thanks,

Les

-----Original Message-----
Les,

The following macro set to run on exit from each field
might work:

Sub UnderlineInField()
'
' Macro recorded June 9, 2004 by CDR Gregory K. Maxey

ActiveDocument.Unprotect
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Underline =
wdUnderlineSingle
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([A-Z]{2})-([0-9])"
.Replacement.Text = "\1-\2"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields,
NoReset:=True
End Sub

-----Original Message-----
OK, I have a template that I created which is more or
less a giant table with a form field or drop-down menu in
each cell. One of my coworkers is using this form, and
wants to underline text within the form field. Not the
whole field, just a portion of the text.

After talking to him, it looks like almost everythign
that he wants to underline appears in a common form: XX-
#, where X is a capital letter and # is a number. Is
there any way, perhaps through a macro, for me to allow
him to do this, or to just have Word automatically
underline all instances of this sort of text?

Thanks,
Les
.

.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Les,

OK, I have a template that I created which is more or
less a giant table with a form field or drop-down menu in
each cell. One of my coworkers is using this form, and
wants to underline text within the form field. Not the
whole field, just a portion of the text.

After talking to him, it looks like almost everythign
that he wants to underline appears in a common form: XX-
#, where X is a capital letter and # is a number. Is
there any way, perhaps through a macro, for me to allow
him to do this, or to just have Word automatically
underline all instances of this sort of text?

In order to allow formatting in a protected form, macros are
required. If the form fields were not in a table, then a
fairly simple macro would work to unprotect, format the
selection, reprotect.

The problem you run into with a table is that the user can't
select just "bits and pieces" in a form field. This makes a
simple macro solution impossible. But, if you have a
pattern, and that's all that's needed (IOW, the user isn't
going to come and say now he wants to bold this and make
that red, and...), you should be able to handle it OK.

You'll find the "framework code" for
unprotecting/reprotecting in the Forms section of my
website. For what goes in between, you should be able to use
the macro recorder to get the basics.

1. Try using Edit/Find to match this pattern (i.e. with
wildcards)

2. Then practice Edit/Replace to pick this up and replace
with the "Find What" text and apply underline formatting.

3. Once you have this working, record it in a macro

4. Then you have to decide whether to do a "Replace All" in
the entire document, just the field where the current
selection is, or just in particular fields.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
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[Greg]

Les,

The error is resulting form the blasted text wrapping that
occurs in this newsgroup. The fifth line is text
wrapped. Bring it up and make the fourth and fifth line
all one line. Same with the last two. Bring
the "NoReset: ..." up to the preceeding line. Leave the
End Sub part on the final line.

Yes you can run this macro after the document is
completed. See:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToo
lbar.htm

Again the text wrapping strikes, so be sure to paste the
entire link above in your browser.

-----Original Message-----
I tried pasting that into my document, and it's giving me
an error on the fourth line, and the last two lines. It
says "syntax error" when I try to compile. I'm afraid I'm
not a programmer, so I don't really know how to fix that.

Thanks for you help, though! Let me know what to do to
fix it so I can try it to see if it works!

Les

-----Original Message-----
Les,

The following macro set to run on exit from each field
might work:

Sub UnderlineInField()
'
' Macro recorded June 9, 2004 by CDR Gregory K. Maxey

ActiveDocument.Unprotect
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Underline =
wdUnderlineSingle
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([A-Z]{2})-([0-9])"
.Replacement.Text = "\1-\2"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields,
NoReset:=True
End Sub

-----Original Message-----
OK, I have a template that I created which is more or
less a giant table with a form field or drop-down menu in
each cell. One of my coworkers is using this form, and
wants to underline text within the form field. Not the
whole field, just a portion of the text.

After talking to him, it looks like almost everythign
that he wants to underline appears in a common form: XX-
#, where X is a capital letter and # is a number. Is
there any way, perhaps through a macro, for me to allow
him to do this, or to just have Word automatically
underline all instances of this sort of text?

Thanks,
Les
.

.

.