Troubleshoot forms - Help and How-to - Microsoft Office Online

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Troubleshoot forms

Applies to: Microsoft Office Word 2003

Show My form fields don't work.

Protect your document for forms by clicking Protect Form Button image on the Forms toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.). Until you protect a document, users cannot type in a text box, select or clear a check box, or see a drop-down arrow to display the available items in a drop-down list.

Show I can't change my form fields.

Your form may be protected. When you are changing a form template, you can quickly remove protection from the form by clicking Protect Form Button image

on the Forms toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.). Then double-click the form field you want to change.

Show The edge of my form is not printing.

Most printers cannot print to the edge of a page. The minimum amount of space needed between the margin and the edge of the page varies by printer. Increase the margins of the form.

Show The macros don't run when a user fills in my form on another computer.

Make sure that the template used to create the form contains the macros (macro: An action or a set of actions that you can use to automate tasks. Macros are recorded in the Visual Basic for Applications programming language.) that users need to fill in the form. You might need to add these macros to the template.

Show How?

Security Use caution when you are adding macros to your form. Macros may be designed in such a way that their use could pose a security risk. We recommend that you use macros from trusted sources only.

On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins.
Click Organizer, and then click the Macro Project Items tab.
To copy items to or from a different template (template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape an entire Web site.) or file, click Close File to close the active document (active document: The document in which you're working. Text you type or graphics you insert in Microsoft Word appear in the active document. The title bar of the active document is highlighted.) and its attached template or to close the Normal template (Normal template: A global template that you can use for any type of document. You can modify this template to change the default document formatting or content.). Then click Open File, and open the template or file you want.
Click the items you want to copy in either list, and then click Copy.

Note You can only copy whole projects from template to template, so you may want to create a custom project that contains only the macros you want to copy to the new template.

Show I see {FORMTEXT}, {FORMCHECKBOX}, or {FORMDROPDOWN} instead of my form fields.

Microsoft Word is displaying field codes (field code: Placeholder text that shows where specified information from your data source will appear; the elements in a field that generate a field's result. The field code includes the field characters, field type, and instructions.) instead of form fields (form field: In a form, a location where a particular type of data, such as a name or address, is stored.). To display form fields, press ALT+F9.

If this problem occurs only when you print, you can turn off the printing of field codes. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Print tab. Under Include with document, clear the Field codes check box.

Show I can't type any more text in the Type your own box when creating a custom Help message.

A Help message window can contain a maximum of 255 characters. A Help message in the status bar can contain a maximum of 138 characters.

Show There are no macros in my Entry or Exit box.

You have not added any macros to the template used to create the form. You need to move macros to or create macros in the template.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins.
Click Organizer, and then click the Macro Project Items tab.
To copy items to or from a different template (template: A file or files that contain the structure and tools for shaping such elements as the style and page layout of finished files. For example, Word templates can shape a single document, and FrontPage templates can shape an entire Web site.) or file, click Close File to close the active document (active document: The document in which you're working. Text you type or graphics you insert in Microsoft Word appear in the active document. The title bar of the active document is highlighted.) and its attached template or to close the Normal template (Normal template: A global template that you can use for any type of document. You can modify this template to change the default document formatting or content.). Then click Open File, and open the template or file you want.
Click the items you want to copy in either list, and then click Copy.

Note You can only copy whole projects from template to template, so you may want to create a custom project that contains only the macros you want to copy to the new template.

Show The TAB key doesn't move the insertion point to the correct form field.

Depending on how your form is designed, the TAB key may not move the insertion point to the correct form field. You can specify that the insertion point automatically moves from one form field to another by using an on-exit macro to automate your form.

Show The size of my check box changes when I apply formatting.

By default, a check box automatically changes size to match the surrounding text. To change the check box size to an exact measurement, double-click the check box form field, click Exactly under Check box size, and then enter the size you want in the box to the right.

Show The Microsoft ActiveX form control I want to add does not appear in the More Controls list.

If you click More Controls Button image on the Control Toolbox (View menu, Toolbars command, Control Toolbox subcommand) and don't see the control you want in the list, the control may not be registered. This may occur if you copied the ActiveX control (ActiveX control: A control, such as a check box or button that offers options to users or runs macros or scripts that automate a task. You can write macros for the control in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications or scripts in Microsoft Script Editor.) (a file with an .ocx or .dll extension) from an installation disk or the network without using the Setup program that the control came with.

Security Use caution when you are adding ActiveX controls to your form. ActiveX controls may be designed in such a way that their use could pose a security risk. We recommend that you use controls from trusted sources only.

To register the control:

On the Control Toolbox, click More Controls .
At the bottom of the list, click Register Custom Control.
Select the control you want to register, and then click Open.

Show My form fields are cleared when I lock the form.

When you protect a form by using the Protect Document task pane (Tools menu, Protect Document command), information in form fields is automatically reset. This does not occur when you protect your document by using the Protect Form button Button image on the Forms toolbar.

Show My form fields aren't cleared when I lock the form.

In some earlier versions of Microsoft Word, form fields were automatically cleared when you protected the form, whether you protected it by using the Protect Document dialog box (Tools menu, Protect Document command) or the Protect Form button Button image on the Forms toolbar. In Microsoft Office Word 2003, form fields are left in their original state when you protect the form by using the Protect Form button.

Show I can't use certain commands with a document I'm reviewing or a form I'm filling out.

The author of the form or document might have protected it to allow only for comments or tracked changes, or to allow for no changes. Doing either makes some commands unavailable.

To access all Microsoft Word commands, click Unprotect Document on the Tools menu. If the author protected the document with a password, you must know the password before you can remove protection from the document.