inserting a checkbox

  • Thread starter Thread starter jspreitz
  • Start date Start date
J

jspreitz

I'm new to Word for the Mac. How do I insert a checkbox that is not tied to
HTML? Appleworks has one which works well but I haven't figured out MS
Word. Thanks for any help.
 
I suspect this is not a Mac-specific question, and that you do it the same
way on the Mac as you do in WinWord. But I don't know, so hopefully someone
else will come along and tell you how they do it in WinWord, and you will be
able to convert that info.

For the most part, Word on the Mac is very similar to WinWord. Internal
manipulations might be on different menus, but are all there. Macros are at
VBA5, equivalent to Word 97. See here for more info (might not work in
Safari, sorry):

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Differences.htm

In the meantime, or if that doesn't work, below is info on Mac Office
newsgroups that is likely to be useful at some point in your usage of word
on the Mac.

DM


For Mac-specific problems that involve glitches with Word, software/hardware
interactions or installation issues rather than manipulating Word itself to
produce a document, you are probably better off posting in a Mac newsgroup:

microsoft.public.mac.office
microsoft.public.mac.office.word

You can access these through the MS site, via Google Groups, or by setting
up a newsreader.
For Mac groups on the MS site, see here (note URL broken by text wrapping)
http://communities2.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx
?guid=366BA05D-4181-BB41-B201-4C83D5F6024C

Newsreaders are usually most efficient--here's a link on how to configure a
newsreader (e.g. Entourage or Outlook Express, note that URL is broken by
text wrapping)
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/community.aspx?pid=newsgroups&page=ne
wsgroupsetup

Here's a link on how to spamproof your address to protect it if using
Entourage:
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/help/nospam.html
re Outlook Express
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/techie.grim/macfaq/articles/046.html

FYI,
microsoft.public.mac.office.excel
microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint
microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Also exist.
 
It depends on what you want it for. If you're creating a protected (online)
form, you can use the Check Box form field. If you're creating a printed
form that users will fill out with pen or pencil, you can create an empty
box in a variety of ways (more on that later). If you're creating a document
to be filled out on the computer (but not a protected form), you may want to
use the kind of check boxes used in the fax cover sheet templates that ship
with Word. These consist of three components:

1. A MacroButton field that runs one of two macros depending on state.

2. A CheckIt macro and an UncheckIt macro.

3. Checked Box and Unchecked Box AutoText entries (these are just Wingdings
characters that have been saved as AutoText).

When the check box is empty (Unchecked Box is displayed), double-clicking on
the MacroButton runs the CheckIt macro, which substitutes the Checked Box,
and vice versa.

In order to use this type of box in your document, you need to Copy/Paste
the MacroButton field into your document/template, then use Organizer to
copy the macros and AutoText entries to your template (it has to be a
template because documents can't store AutoText entries, but you could copy
them to Normal.dot if you're just creating a document rather than a
template).

If you just need an empty box for users to check with a pen/pencil, you can
use one of several available font characters (such as the shadowed boxes in
Wingdings), or (my favorite) you can create a box using the EQ \x (box)
field. You'll find instructions for this in Word's Help under "Field codes:
EQ (Equation) field," but you can get the same effect by applying a border
to Text in the Borders and Shading dialog. What you want to put a border
around is some spaces, but the trick is that you can't use ordinary spaces:
at least one of them (the last) must be a nonbreak space. So type two or
three spaces and a nonbreak space, then apply a box border to it. You may
need to adjust the font size to make the box the size you want, but I find
this works very nicely.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

I'm new to Word for the Mac. How do I insert a checkbox that is not tied to
HTML? Appleworks has one which works well but I haven't figured out MS
Word. Thanks for any help.
 
You need to turn on your "Forms" toolbar (View to Toolbars to Forms; o
right-click on your toolbar and choose "Forms"). This is where yo
insert form fields. You can click on a "check box" and then click o
the little "hand" icon to format the check box -- for instance, if yo
want it to be checked by default.

It is necessary to "lock" the form when you're finished editing it s
the check box and any other form fields you have inserted will work -
do this by clicking the little padlock on the far right side of th
Forms toolbar.

Hope this helps!

Emile
 
Hi i am creating a project request form for people to fill out on their computer. It consists of yes and no checkboxes and then other areas where the user needs to type in information. I have reviewed all of the posts but don't find anything that will help me here. If i lock the template it works great except the user can fill in the other areas. When i don't lock it everytime they clieck the box an Check box menu comes up. Anyone help????
 
You need to use text form fields as well as check box form fields. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm and especially
the forms tutorials by Dian Chapman that this article links to.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

danniemac said:
Hi i am creating a project request form for people to fill out on their
Click to expand...
computer. It consists of yes and no checkboxes and then other areas where
the user needs to type in information. I have reviewed all of the posts but
don't find anything that will help me here. If i lock the template it works
great except the user can fill in the other areas. When i don't lock it
everytime they clieck the box an Check box menu comes up. Anyone help????
 
Back
Top