Text Form Fields into Text Boxes

  • Thread starter Thread starter zip
  • Start date Start date
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zip

I am trying to create a form, with little success. In specific, the form
requires alot of bordering and segregating of areas. Thus, I used text
boxes. However, I must also include Form fields to allow user data
input into specific areas without allowing alteration of the rest of
the document. However, Word will not allow me to place a "Text Form
Field" into a text box. So, I have also tried Insert>Field>Document
Automation>Macrobutton "None ________". But this does not allow input
of user data correctly. The document is large, so I would prefer not to
retype all of the data. But, am not sure this would serve my intention
anyway, since I need the segregation. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Zip,

Indeed, you can't put a formfield inside a text box, and if you could,
it wouldn't behave properly -- the user couldn't tab into or out of it,
because a textbox is in the drawling layer, not the main text layer.
What you want is a FRAME, which is the ugly yet more talented stepsister
of a textbox. Click the funny blue button on the Forms toolbar and
drag a rectangle in the document.

Frames are also what you'll need if & when you decide you must materially
alter the tab order in a form document from the order Word imposes. The
position of a frame's *anchor* determines the tab-order priority of any
formfields the frame contains.

(Quite often this is the stage where your form's complexity is approaching
the point where it can't be comfortably accommodated by formfields, so if
that whole operation sounds prohibitively ltedious, don't worry; you'll
probably graduate to userforms (custom dialog boxes) soon enough.
 
But note that a lot of the form formatting could probably be handled equally
well by a table with selected borders.

--
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.

Mark Tangard said:
Hi Zip,

Indeed, you can't put a formfield inside a text box, and if you could,
it wouldn't behave properly -- the user couldn't tab into or out of it,
because a textbox is in the drawling layer, not the main text layer.
What you want is a FRAME, which is the ugly yet more talented stepsister
of a textbox. Click the funny blue button on the Forms toolbar and
drag a rectangle in the document.

Frames are also what you'll need if & when you decide you must materially
alter the tab order in a form document from the order Word imposes. The
position of a frame's *anchor* determines the tab-order priority of any
formfields the frame contains.

(Quite often this is the stage where your form's complexity is approaching
the point where it can't be comfortably accommodated by formfields, so if
that whole operation sounds prohibitively ltedious, don't worry; you'll
probably graduate to userforms (custom dialog boxes) soon enough.
Click to expand...
 
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