MS Word Field Fill-In

[RankinC]

I have designed a form using the field fill-in option in Word. When opened it will automatically require certain fields to be populated. I have noticed that it needs to be saved has a template to get it to work correctly.

The problem is that I want tyo attach this to our coperate database but I can;t because it needs to be in .doc format and not .dot. Is there anyway to use this fill-in field option as .doc?

Regards

 

[Von Pookie]

As long as you protect the document, you should be able to save it as a .doc with no problems.

I'm doing this with the Word 2003 menus:
Tools\Protect Document. In the task pane, select option 2, "Editing restrictions" and in the dropdown select "Filling in forms."
Then click "Yes," and enter a password if you want to password-protect the document.

Doing that should set the document so that the only changes that can be made are to any form fields on the document.


However, saving such a form as a .dot file is generally recommended if it will be used by multiple users as this will create a new version of the document every time. If you use a .doc, if they save the file with entries in the fields, the next person to open it will see those values. With a .dot, they get a blank form every time.

 

[RankinC]

Thanks for the reply.

I have just done this, but when I open the document it does not prompt me to fill any fields, it just opens the document.

I would have prefered to have the document saved has a .dot file but unfortunatley the database I am attaching this to does not accept .dot files so I'm hoping there is a way around the problems.

Thanks

 

[Von Pookie]

Hmm. Sorry about that, I thought you were using regular textboxes for some reason.

Looks like it would have to be a template in order for the fill-in fields to work automatically. On a .doc file, you would have to manually refresh it, or activate it somehow. For example, put the cursor in the field and press F9.

Alternately, you could use macros to do it, but that may be a bit more than you're looking for.

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...read/thread/d0254cdc867d4651/177c8096da45f683

 

[RankinC]

Is it possible to refresh the document as a whole, or will each individual field have to be refreshed.