Input field in word

This entry shows how to create an input form in
MS Word containing several input fields.

The input fields are highlighted in green and
become active as soon as you click on a field.

The input fields are simple text fields,
drop-down selection fields or multi-line comment fields

The inputs can be further processed as
variables in macros and automated.

Inquiries for the entry form under codedocu.de,
Raimund.popp@codedocu.de

The file with the following input field as a template
or example is available for download in the appendix.

Input
form in Word

Create input fields

Step 1: Menu-> Developer Tools ->
[Controls] -> Text Only Content Control

Step 2: Turn on draft mode

Step
3) Input field-> Properties

Step
4) Enter title, text, field lock

Here first name and first name

Lock: the content control can not be deleted
-> enable

Step
5) Mark text

Then mark text in the field

Step
6) Enter preview text

As default or preview text you can either enter
spaces or enter as logical input text like «please enter first name».

Step 7) Highlight the color

In order to recognize the input fields as an
input form, the fields should be marked in color.

To do this, completely mark the text inside the
input field and highlight it with the color tool as the background color.

Tip: As a field as the tax office with light green.

Step
Turn off draft mode

Under Menu-> Developer Tools> Turn Off
Design Mode

Step
9) Check input fields

The input fields now appear as green
placeholders. As soon as you click in a field, the field appears darker and a
frame becomes visible.

Step
10) Check input

If you then enter text with the keyboard, the
green placeholder is replaced and the text box expands as far as the input text
itself is

As you enter text, the field expands

Alternative input fields

1)
As a mail merge field

Advantage: can be connected to a serial letter

2) Fill-in field

Simple text input to complete. Disadvantage:
can not be automated in macros.

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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No, the variables do not have to come from a third party site.

Your question has some ambiguities, but if you have a Word bookmark named «NAME», then

{ IF "{ NAME }" = "Alex" "Hello Alex" "What is your name?" }

would display the text Alex if the bookmark’s value was Alex, and would display What is your name? If it was not Alex. But it would not generate an input box or any other structure that would let you enter a name.

In this case, you could also use

{ IF NAME = "Alex" "Hello Alex" "What is your name?" }

You could also do this

{ IF NAME = Alex "Hello Alex" "What is your name?" }

but be aware that that may not work as you expect if you happen to have something like

{ SET NAME Alex }{ SET Alex Alx }{ IF NAME = Alex "Hello Alex" "What is your name?" }

All the {} pairs have to be the special field code brace pairs that you can insert on Windows Desktop Word using ctrl-F9, on Mac Desktop Word using cmd-F9, or a varietion on those sequences depending on your keyboard and setup.

At the moment you appear to have doubled up whatever type of brace you are using

{ IF "{{name}}" etc.

That won’t work!

The value of the bookmark NAME could come from a number of place. e.g. you might select a piece of text and insert the bookmark «NAME» there, e.g. if I selected piece of text and inserted a bookmark called NAME, the value of NAME would be piece of text. Or you could set the value of NAME using

{ SET NAME "piece of text" }

Or you could use an ASK field like this

{ ASK NAME "What is your name?" }

or a combination of a SET and a FILLIN field (Let’s not go there). You (or the user) has to select all the relevant fields and «update» them (e.g. F9 on Windows Word).

In addition, if your document is a mailmerge main document connected to a data source that has a column called NAME, you may find that the data in that column is used to populate a bookmark in Word called NAME. This dates back to early versions of Word where you referenced a column in the data source using { NAME } rather than { MERGEFIELD NAME }. I think that in recent versions it only applies to data sources that Word opens through its file converters, e.g. if the data source is a Word document or HTML file, not (say) an Excel workbook opened using OLE DB.

And you can of course try to set the name using something like

{ IF "{ NAME }" = "Alex" "Hello Alex" "{ ASK NAME "What is your name?" }" }

but the user would have to execute that IF field twice to see Hello Alex if the value of bookmark NAME was not Alex beforehand. It doesn’t seem like a very good approach. Nor is there a looping construct in Word that would help you there.

When choosing bookmark names,

• avoid names that are the names of Word field types (such as IF, ASK, FILLIN, SET etc.
• avoid names that «look like» table cell names (A1, AB1 etc.)

The other possible way to do this would be to use «legacy Form Field codes, and use a Textbox field to enter the name. That type of textbox field also has an associated bookmark name that you can specify in the field’s properties. But to use those legacy form fields, you have to put the whole document into «protected for forms» mode, which means that everything else becomes uneditable.