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Making Forms with Microsoft WordVERY ROUGH DRAFT - not ready for prime time - this is in the site right now only for the Additional Written Resources by Charles Kyle Kenyon, Esq. There are no expectations that this chapter will ever be of the same quality and depth as the other chapters of this guide. That is because it was written by a single author not working with Microsoft. I am not an expert at this, I'm a lawyer with a passion for efficiency and effectiveness. You will not find this chapter on the Microsoft site. Comments are welcome. You should have reviewed Basic Formatting, Tables and the bookmarks and cross-reference portions of Complex Legal Documents before tackling this chapter. Click here to break out of a frame. What You Will LearnAfter completing this lesson, you will be able to:
Additional Written (and Web) Resources
Macro Package for Form Information Management
Forms OverviewWhat I am talking about in this chapter is what is referred to as an online form in Microsoft’s documentation. Such online forms can also be printed forms to be filled out by hand or on a typewriter. When used on the computer, they are generally templates that create new documents. These documents are protected from changes in crucial areas. This protection also allows use of special fields inserted with the Forms Toolbar. Starting from a Printed FormIn my practice, often a printed form will come in that it would be helpful to be able to fill in using Microsoft Word.[1] This breaks down into
Let’s take a look at each of these possibilities in order. Mimic formsGetting a Word-printed form to look exactly like the pre-printed form can be very difficult because the fonts and spacing options are different. Probably the simplest way to mimic a paper form is to scan it in a high-resolution scan (at least 600 dpi) and use that as the basis for your document. When you scan the document, clean it up in your scanning program. That means remove any extra marks or things that shouldn’t be on the form. Straighten the image up so that a horizontal line drawn in Word is going to match a horizontal line on the form. Crop off any extra margin area. Save the scanned image into your template’s folder using a picture format that Word recognizes. I would suggest JPG, PNG, or GIF. For purposes of this tutorial, let’s call your scanned image “form.jpg.” Open Word. Format your margins to those of the printed form. Switch to View Headers and Footers.
Insert your scanned image in the textbox. (Insert | Picture | From file) (Select the option to “link” rather than insert or insert and link.) Right-click on the image and select Format Picture.
Click on the Size tab and make sure your size scale is 100%. Word will likely have inserted at 97% or something close but not at the 100% that you need. Close the Format Picture box by clicking on OK. Move your pointer to the edge of your text-box and right-click on the text-box border. Select “Format Text Box” from the short-cut menu. Change the options under Fill to “No Fill” and Line to “No Line.”
Click on the Layout tab and then click on the box that says “Behind text.”
Click on the “Advanced” button and on the Position Tab click in the “Absolute position” radio buttons and select “from page” as the reference for both vertical and horizontal spacing. Uncheck the box that says “Move object with text” and check the box that says “Lock anchor.”
Starting from Scratch Locking and Unlocking FormsSpell-Checking FormsPrinted FormsWord Help topics:Word 2000· Create a Form · Overview of Forms Word 97· Create an online form
SUMMARYThis article contains four Visual Basic for Applications macros that
you can use to emulate the Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows functionality
of the ENTER key for moving between form fields in protected documents. MORE INFORMATIONMicrosoft provides programming examples for illustration only,
without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited
to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a
particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the
programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and
debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the
functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these
examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet
your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may
want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft
fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about
Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on
the World Wide Web: http://mcspreferral.microsoft.com/For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web: http://support.microsoft.com/directory/overview.asp What follows are the four Visual Basic for Applications macros that you can use together to emulate the Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows functionality of the ENTER key in new protected form field documents based on a template. For this code to work as written, the template should not be protected. The first macro moves the insertion point to the next form field. The second macro assigns the first macro to the ENTER key. The third macro adds an AutoOpen macro to the ENTER key. The fourth macro removes the assigned macro to the ENTER key, restoring the default functionality of the ENTER key. First Macro: Moves the Insertion Point to the Next Form FieldThis macro moves the insertion point to the next form field. If the current form field is the last one in the document, it moves the insertion point to the first form field.This macro uses the Bookmarks collection to retrieve the name of the current form field. The name of each form field is also the name of a bookmark inserted for the form field. If you have any other bookmarks in your document, you may have to add more code here to handle potential errors. The macro also assumes that all form fields in the documents allow user input. If this is not the case in your document, you will have to add additional code in your macro. The macro checks whether the current section is protected or unprotected, and then either moves to the next form field (in a protected section) or inserts a paragraph mark (in an unprotected section). This functionality is necessary for documents that contain both sections that are protected for form input and for unprotected sections. Sub EnterKeyMacro()
' Check whether the document is protected for forms
' and whether the protection is active.
If ActiveDocument.ProtectionType = wdAllowOnlyFormFields And _
Selection.Sections(1).ProtectedForForms = True Then
' Retrieve the bookmark of the current selection.
' This is equivalent to the name of the form field.
myformfield = Selection.Bookmarks(1).Name
' Go to the next form field if the current form field
' is not the last one in the document.
If ActiveDocument.FormFields(myformfield).Name <> _
ActiveDocument.FormFields(ActiveDocument.FormFields.Count) _
.Name Then
ActiveDocument.FormFields(myformfield).Next.Select
Else
' If the current form field is the last one,
' go to the first form field in the document.
ActiveDocument.FormFields(1).Select
End If
Else
' If the document is not protected for forms,
' insert a tab stop character.
Selection.TypeText Chr(13)
End If
End Sub
Second Macro: Assigns the EnterkeyMacro Macro to the ENTER KeyThis macro attaches the EnterKeyMacro macro to the ENTER key, thereby reprogramming the function of the key when it is used in protected document form fields. When you use this macro in a custom template, name it "AutoNew" (without the quotation marks). This will change the functionality of the ENTER key in all new form documents based on the template. Sub AutoNew()
' Do Not protect the template containing these macros.
CustomizationContext = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate
' Bind the ENTER key to the EnterKeyMacro.
KeyBindings.Add KeyCode:=BuildKeyCode(wdKeyReturn), _
KeyCategory:=wdKeyCategoryMacro, Command:="EnterKeyMacro"
' Reprotect the document with Forms protection.
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields, NoReset:=True
End Sub
Third Macro: Adds an AutoOpen Macro to the ENTER KeyAdd an AutoOpen macro with the following code. This ensures that the key functionality will continue when you open a document based on the form template in the future. Sub AutoOpen()
' This macro will reassign the ENTER key when you open an existing
' Word form fields document.
CustomizationContext = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate
' Bind the Enter key to the EnterKeyMacro.
KeyBindings.Add KeyCode:=BuildKeyCode(wdKeyReturn), _
KeyCategory:=wdKeyCategoryMacro, Command:="EnterKeyMacro"
End Sub
NOTE: Running these macros may disable some functions, such as
AutoCorrect and AutoText, and may affect other features that depend on
the ENTER key for proper operation. You need to run the forth macro to
restore the default functionality of the ENTER key or restart Microsoft
Word.
Fourth Macro: Removes the Command Assigned to the ENTER KeyThis macro restores the default functionality of the ENTER key. When you use this macro in a custom template, name it AutoClose. Sub AutoClose()
CustomizationContext = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate
FindKey(KeyCode:=BuildKeyCode(wdKeyReturn)).Disable
' Disables prompt to save template changes.
Templates(1).Save
End Sub
NOTE: The CustomizationContext property sets the location where the
keyboard customization is to be saved, in this case the template
attached to the active document.For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q173707 OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles
REFERENCESFor more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications Create a Form to Protect Information and Allow User InputDo you ever want people to enter information in a document and, at the same time, prevent them from changing certain information? An easy solution is to create a form in Microsoft Word 2000. A form allows users to enter information, while it prevents unauthorized persons from changing the form. Create a form with a tableIt's simple to create a form in Word 2000. You can use a table to lay out the form and then enter form fields in the cells where you want information entered or updated. A form field can be a Text Form Field, a Check Box Form Field, or a Drop-down Form Field. Text form fields are used when you want the user to enter information, such as names and addresses. The check box and drop-down form fields allow users to select items that are on the form.
Step 1 - Create a table
Step 2 - Create a form
Step 3 - Protect the documentBefore you distribute the form, you need to protect the document.
To quickly protect your form
For more information about creating forms, type create a form in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Word Help window, and then click Search. For information on creating sections, type insert sections in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Word Help window, and then click Search. from http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/articles/wCreateForms.htm
. |
You are going to
import the form in your document’s header. Draw a text box in the
header that fills the entire page. (Insert | Text Box). Click
inside the textbox.
The
Legal Users' Guide to Microsoft Word is available on CD-ROM for a nominal
charge. The CD-ROM includes all Chapters of the guide (except for the chapter on
confidentiality) together with the Frequently Asked Questions about Microsoft
Word from the companion website and many extra tutorials and Add-Ins.