This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Filling Out a Form
You will probably want to test your forms as you build them to make sure they are user friendly. Filling out a form is a little different depending on the field type, so the following sections look at the processes separately.
CAUTION
You can test the form in either the template file or in a document file based on the template. If you test the form in the template, though, make sure that you do not save your changes with the fields filled in.
Filling Out a Form with Content Controls
To enter text in a content control, click inside the content control and then type the entry for it.
If the form is protected, the insertion point flashes at the beginning of the document, and clicking anywhere in a protected region fails to move the insertion point; it jumps back to the beginning. The only areas you can successfully move the insertion point into are the content controls. With content controls, however, it is not mandatory that the document be protected to test a field. If the document is not protected, you can click anywhere and edit anything, not just the field entries. That’s by design; this behavior allows you to put content controls into any document.
Depending on the options set up for the content control, the content control might go away after you enter something into it, or it might become locked against further editing after the initial entry. If either of those conditions is unsatisfactory, you can turn off their options in the content control’s Properties.
Preventing Accidental Content Control Deletion
Because the form is not necessarily protected, the possibility exists that a user will accidentally delete the content control. To prevent that from happening, you can protect each control from deletion by turning on the Content Control Cannot Be Deleted option in the control’s Properties dialog box. Follow these steps:
- Unprotect the form if it is protected, and make sure Design Mode is selected on the Developer tab.
- Select the content control and click Properties on the Developer tab. The Content Control Properties dialog box opens.
- Mark the Content Control Cannot Be Deleted check box.
- Click OK.
Filling Out a Legacy Form
A legacy form doesn’t work properly unless it’s protected. When unprotected, the form treats the fields as foreign objects, and you can’t enter anything into them.
On a protected form, you can click in a field and then type the text into it, or you can press Tab to move from field to field.
If help has been set up for a field, you can press the F1 key to see the help information when the insertion point is within that field. (Pressing F1 any other time opens the general Word 2016 help window, not the specific help for that field.)