Filling forms in word documents

You can use Word to create interactive digital forms that other people can fill out on their computers before printing or sending them back to you. It takes a little preparation but keeps you from having to decipher messy handwriting! Some of the tools you will use when creating a form include:

• Templates: Forms are normally saved as templates so that they can be used again and again.
• Content controls: The areas where users input information in a form.
• Tables: Tables are often used in forms to align text and form fields, and to create borders and boxes.
• Protection: Users can complete the form fields without being able to change the form’s text and/or design.

Show the Developer Tab

Before you can create a form, you’ll need to turn on the Developer tab to get access to the advanced tools.

1. Click the File tab.

   
2. Select Options.

   

   The Word Options window opens.

3. Click the Customize Ribbon tab on the left.

   The column on the right controls which ribbon tabs are enabled.

4. Check the Developer check box.
5. Click OK.

   

The Developer tab now appears on the ribbon. In addition to advanced tools for macro recording, add-ins, and document protection, we now have access to form controls.

Create a Form

Once you’ve enabled the Developer tab, and created the layout and structure of the form, you can start adding form fields to your document with Content Controls.

1. Place the text cursor where you want to insert the form field.
2. Click the Developer tab on the ribbon.

   The Controls group contains the different kinds of content controls you can add to a form, as well as the toggle button for Design Mode.

3. Click the Design Mode button in the controls group.

   While Design Mode is active, controls you insert won’t be active, so clicking a check box to move it around won’t also check it. You can also customize placeholder text for some controls.

   

4. Click a Content Control buttons to insert the selected type of control.

   The content control is inserted.

   Select a form field and click the Properties button on the ribbon to edit a control’s options. Depending on the type of control you’ve inserted, you can change its appearance, set up the options in a list, or lock the control once edited.

5. When you’re done, click the Design Mode button again to exit Design Mode.

   

You leave Design Mode, and the content controls that you’ve inserted can now be used.

Types of Form Controls

There are many different types of form controls you can add to a form that will allow people to add different types of responses.

Finalize a Form

When you’re ready to distribute a form so others can fill it out, you can restrict the form so that content controls cannot be removed or changed by those filling it out.

1. Click the Restrict Editing button on the Developer tab.

   The Restrict Editing pane appears on the right.

2. Check the Editing restrictions check box.
3. Click the Editing restriction list arrow.
4. Select Filling in forms.

   When this option is enabled, the only change that anyone else can make to this document is the filling in of form fields. They won’t be able to move, delete, or edit the fields themselves until protection is turned off.

   

5. Click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button.

   A password is not required to start enforcing protection, but you can add one if you’d like to prevent just anyone from turning this protection off.

6. Enter a password (optional), then click OK.

   

The document is now restricted, and anyone you send it to will only be able to fill in the forms.

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Section 2: Open a Template or Blank Document to Base the Form

It is supported to make an existing word document into a fillable form. And you can also set a new document and save it as your template for further usage.

If you Have a Form Template in Word Already:

Step 1: Search your form template

Choose File and click New to start with a form template. Later, you can search for Forms in the Templates search field.

Step 2: Choose the form that matches the type you need

Select the form, then click Download (Word 2010) or Create (Word 2013, Word 2016).

Step 3: Set the name for your new form template

Click Save As in the File left panel. Rename your new template if you need it. Then click Save to apply your change.

If You Want to Create Your Personal Form Template in Word:

Step 1: Head to Microsoft Word File list

After creating a form document, choose the File tab. Then click Save As under its list.

Step 2: Save the new document as a template

Select Word template from the drop-down Save as type. Later, rename it to distinguish it from others. And click Save to finish.

Section 3: Insert Any Content You Need to the Form

During this section, you can add many content and elements to create a fillable form in Word 2010/2013/2016. Of course, there is no need to apply all contents.

Step 1: Prepare to insert the controls you need

Click the place where you want to insert the control. Head to the Developer section and locate the Controls group. Then you can click the Design Mode option besides.

Step 2: Insert contents to create a fillable form with Microsoft Word

Insert a text control in a fillable form in a word:

Choose Rich Text Content Control or Plain Text Content Control options. Both of them have similar Aa icons.

Add a picture control in a fillable form in a word:

Find and click Picture Content Control besides Design Mode, which looks like a picture icon.

Add a building block control in a fillable form in a word:

Choose Building Block Content Control or Building Block Gallery Content Control in the second line of nine different icons.

Insert a combo box or a drop-down list in a fillable form in a word:

Click Combo Box Content Control or Drop-Down List Content Control. Choose Developer in the content control. Later, click Properties in the Controls group on the top. If you want to create a list of choices, you can select Add under Drop-Down List Properties. Then fill in the required information in Display Name and other options.

Insert a date picker in a fillable form in a word:

Click Date Picker Content Control that looks like a calendar. Then you can choose the date just like surfing an airline booking site.

Add a check box in a fillable form in a word:

Find and click a square icon with a check inserted Check Box Content Control. For instance, you can add a check box before a text to make an easy choice.

Note: You can set or change Properties after choosing any content control. Just as steps of inserting a drop-down list to create a fillable form in word mentioned above.

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Corrine has a form that she created in a document. She can use document protection (via the Restrict Editing task pane) to allow filling in forms, but that makes the rest of the document uneditable. What she would like is a way for the form to be «fillable» while leaving the rest of the document available for editing. She wonders if that is possible.

This is possible, and Word makes it relatively easy to do. The general idea is that you insert section breaks around the portion of your document that constitutes your form—in other words, put one just before your first form control and one just after your last form control. Section breaks are inserted by displaying the Page Layout tab of the ribbon (Word 2007, Word 2010, and Word 2013) or the Layout tab of the ribbon (Word 2016) and using the Breaks tool. If you want the form to be just a portion of a larger page of the document, then use continuous section breaks. If you want the form to be on its own page, then use next-page section breaks, instead.

Before you can protect the form, you need to figure out what section it is that contains your form. The easiest way to do this is to display the section number on the status bar. You do this by right-clicking the status bar, which displays a Context menu that includes a section called Customize Status Bar. In this section, make sure the Section option has a check mark beside it. (If it doesn’t, click it to add the section number to the status bar.)

Now, position the insertion pointer inside the form, between the two section breaks you entered. You can then look at the left side of the status bar and Word tells you what section you are in. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Figuring out the section for your form.

Now it is time to apply the protection to the form. Follow these steps:

1. Display the Review tab of the ribbon.
2. Click the Restrict Editing tool, in the Protect group. Word displays a task pane at the right side of your document. (Depending on your version of Word, this task pane may be called Restrict Formatting and Editing or simply Restrict Editing.)
3. In section 2 of the task pane (Editing Restrictions), select the check box. This enables the drop-down list in the section.
4. Using the drop-down list, choose Filling in Forms. Word makes the Select Sections link available, right under the drop-down list. (The link is only made available if your document contains multiple sections.) (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. Protecting your document.

5. Click the Select Sections link. Word displays the Section Protection dialog box. (See Figure 3.)



Figure 3. The Section Protection dialog box.

6. Make sure that only the section (or sections) you want protected are selected in the list of sections. Only those sections you determined earlier—the ones that contain your form—should have a check mark beside them.
7. Click on the OK button. Word closes the Section Protection dialog box.
8. In section 3 of the task pane (Start Enforcement), click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button. Word displays the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box. (See Figure 4.)



Figure 4. The Start Enforcing Protection dialog box.

9. Enter a password for the protection, if desired. (You’ll need to enter it twice.)
10. Click OK.
11. Close the Restrict Formatting and Editing task pane.

At this point, only the section in which your form is located is protected. Anything else in the document can be edited, provided it is in a section other than where the form is located.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…