Using word doc like a form?

[Doug Kanter]

Let's say you've got a form that was created to be printed and then filled
in by hand. It's got text like this:

Name:___________________

Now, users want to type info into the form, rather than print & handwrite.
If they put their cursor at the beginning of the underline, then obviously,
the new text is inserted, the line wraps (if it needs to), and throws off
the formatting of the page. Is there a way to get areas in Word to behave
more like cells in Excel? Does this question make sense the way I'm
explaining it?

 

[Timothy L]

First, delete that line that you drew or remove the underscore "_" characters (which ever way you made it) to
the right of "Name:".


Click View (from the menu bar), point to Toolbars.

If there is no check next to "Forms", click on it.

The Forms Toolbar shows.

In the Forms Toolbar, click the "Text From Field" (first button which looks like "ab|").


If you want to change the options of that Form Field, click the Text From Field and then click on "Form Field
Options" (4th button which has a yellow hand pointing to something on a page) in the Forms Toolbar.

 

[Doug Kanter]

Timothy:
Thanks very much. Looks like this will work nicely.

 

[JDS]

I'm struggling with the same issue but my example is with 3 form fields on
the same row. As I enter text into the 1st form field, the 2nd and 3rd form
fields still get pushed to the right on the row - if enuf data is entered in
the 1st form field, the 2nd and 3rd will wrap the next row.

I can control the 1st field length in the properties, but I want to lock
down the 2nd and 3rd fields so they are ALWAYS in the same place in the row
regardless of the length of data entered in prior fields.

Another way of saying this might be that the form field is only about 6
characters visible in the document row regardless of if I set the field to a
max of 30 - how can I have the form field display as 30 - even though no
data has been entered yet? Seems like that would be a way of locking down
the real estate in the row so nothing would move.

Help?

 

[Zilbandy]

I can control the 1st field length in the properties, but I want to lock
down the 2nd and 3rd fields so they are ALWAYS in the same place in the row
regardless of the length of data entered in prior fields.

Put each form field in its own text box.

 

[JDS]

how do I do that?

Put each form field in its own text box.

 

[Zilbandy]

In Word97, it's in the Insert drop down menu.

how do I do that?