Clickable text in Word templates

  • Thread starter Thread starter Amy Blankenship
  • Start date Start date
A

Amy Blankenship

I'm not sure what you call it in a template where MS has included text
<Click here to enter your name> or whatever, that when you click it the
default text goes away and the new text replaces it, but I'd like to do that
in a custom template. Since I don't know what it is, I don't know how to
look for it in the help. Anyone know what that's called?

TIA;

Amy
 
See http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/fields.htm#MacroButton,
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/UsingMacroButton.htm for more
about macrobutton fields.


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
I haven't been able to find any difference between this and a regular text
field (i.e. when you click the text field the default text goes away and no
trace of the original field seems to exist in the document). When I tried
to insert a MacroButton field, it automatically selected the first macro on
the list and did not seem to offer a way to type in the name of a
nonexistent macro. I didn't want to add an empty macro named NoMacro,
because many people get prompted when they try to view a doc with macros,
and they think you're being sneaky.

Are there any disadvantages to just using a text field instead?

-Amy
 
Hi Amy,

Don't try to use the Insert > Field dialog for this. Just type the field
code as plain text into the document, such as

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type name]

Select that text and press Ctrl+F9. That adds the field braces around it.
Then press F9, or right-click it and select Update Field, to get the
collapsed form.

And you don't need any actual macro -- that's the point of typing "NoMacro"
in the field. The idea is that the field does nothing when the user clicks
it, except that it all becomes selected.

The advantage of this over a text field is that in order to use a text field
you have to protect the document for forms. That imposes all kinds of
restrictions -- any part of the document that isn't a form field can't be
edited. When you use a MacroButton field, there are no restrictions on the
rest of the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I didn't protect my document, and I haven't noticed any ill effects. What
sorts of problems should I be seeing in my unprotected document that I'm
not?

Jay Freedman said:
Hi Amy,

Don't try to use the Insert > Field dialog for this. Just type the field
code as plain text into the document, such as

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type name]

Select that text and press Ctrl+F9. That adds the field braces around it.
Then press F9, or right-click it and select Update Field, to get the
collapsed form.

And you don't need any actual macro -- that's the point of typing
"NoMacro" in the field. The idea is that the field does nothing when the
user clicks it, except that it all becomes selected.

The advantage of this over a text field is that in order to use a text
field you have to protect the document for forms. That imposes all kinds
of restrictions -- any part of the document that isn't a form field can't
be edited. When you use a MacroButton field, there are no restrictions on
the rest of the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so all may benefit.

Amy said:
I haven't been able to find any difference between this and a regular
text field (i.e. when you click the text field the default text goes
away and no trace of the original field seems to exist in the
document). When I tried to insert a MacroButton field, it
automatically selected the first macro on the list and did not seem
to offer a way to type in the name of a nonexistent macro. I didn't
want to add an empty macro named NoMacro, because many people get
prompted when they try to view a doc with macros, and they think
you're being sneaky.
Are there any disadvantages to just using a text field instead?

-Amy
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
For the way you're using it, there's no practical difference between a
NoMacro-type MacroButton field and an unprotected text form field.
There won't be any problems either way.

The form field is _intended_ to be used in a protected document (read
about it at http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22. In
much the same sense, a MacroButton field is _intended_ to launch a
macro. Either one can be used in an unintended manner, for which I'd
say they're equivalent.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

I didn't protect my document, and I haven't noticed any ill effects. What
sorts of problems should I be seeing in my unprotected document that I'm
not?

Jay Freedman said:
Hi Amy,

Don't try to use the Insert > Field dialog for this. Just type the field
code as plain text into the document, such as

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type name]

Select that text and press Ctrl+F9. That adds the field braces around it.
Then press F9, or right-click it and select Update Field, to get the
collapsed form.

And you don't need any actual macro -- that's the point of typing
"NoMacro" in the field. The idea is that the field does nothing when the
user clicks it, except that it all becomes selected.

The advantage of this over a text field is that in order to use a text
field you have to protect the document for forms. That imposes all kinds
of restrictions -- any part of the document that isn't a form field can't
be edited. When you use a MacroButton field, there are no restrictions on
the rest of the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so all may benefit.

Amy said:
I haven't been able to find any difference between this and a regular
text field (i.e. when you click the text field the default text goes
away and no trace of the original field seems to exist in the
document). When I tried to insert a MacroButton field, it
automatically selected the first macro on the list and did not seem
to offer a way to type in the name of a nonexistent macro. I didn't
want to add an empty macro named NoMacro, because many people get
prompted when they try to view a doc with macros, and they think
you're being sneaky.
Are there any disadvantages to just using a text field instead?

-Amy

See http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/fields.htm#MacroButton,
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/UsingMacroButton.htm for
more about macrobutton fields.


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


message I'm not sure what you call it in a template where MS has included
text <Click here to enter your name> or whatever, that when you
click it the default text goes away and the new text replaces it,
but I'd like to do that in a custom template. Since I don't know
what it is, I don't know how to look for it in the help. Anyone
know what that's called? TIA;

Amy
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
OK, thanks :)
Jay Freedman said:
For the way you're using it, there's no practical difference between a
NoMacro-type MacroButton field and an unprotected text form field.
There won't be any problems either way.

The form field is _intended_ to be used in a protected document (read
about it at http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22. In
much the same sense, a MacroButton field is _intended_ to launch a
macro. Either one can be used in an unintended manner, for which I'd
say they're equivalent.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

I didn't protect my document, and I haven't noticed any ill effects. What
sorts of problems should I be seeing in my unprotected document that I'm
not?

Jay Freedman said:
Hi Amy,

Don't try to use the Insert > Field dialog for this. Just type the field
code as plain text into the document, such as

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type name]

Select that text and press Ctrl+F9. That adds the field braces around
it.
Then press F9, or right-click it and select Update Field, to get the
collapsed form.

And you don't need any actual macro -- that's the point of typing
"NoMacro" in the field. The idea is that the field does nothing when the
user clicks it, except that it all becomes selected.

The advantage of this over a text field is that in order to use a text
field you have to protect the document for forms. That imposes all kinds
of restrictions -- any part of the document that isn't a form field
can't
be edited. When you use a MacroButton field, there are no restrictions
on
the rest of the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so all may benefit.

Amy Blankenship wrote:
I haven't been able to find any difference between this and a regular
text field (i.e. when you click the text field the default text goes
away and no trace of the original field seems to exist in the
document). When I tried to insert a MacroButton field, it
automatically selected the first macro on the list and did not seem
to offer a way to type in the name of a nonexistent macro. I didn't
want to add an empty macro named NoMacro, because many people get
prompted when they try to view a doc with macros, and they think
you're being sneaky.
Are there any disadvantages to just using a text field instead?

-Amy

See http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/fields.htm#MacroButton,
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/UsingMacroButton.htm for
more about macrobutton fields.


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


message I'm not sure what you call it in a template where MS has included
text <Click here to enter your name> or whatever, that when you
click it the default text goes away and the new text replaces it,
but I'd like to do that in a custom template. Since I don't know
what it is, I don't know how to look for it in the help. Anyone
know what that's called? TIA;

Amy
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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