

It was driving me and my managers CRAZY! 2010 is new to us so were all trying to figure out where all of the features we used to use are. This means that if there are instructions and/or questions that require more than 138 characters to accurately convey what is being asked, some very important information will be lost.
#How to link text form fields in word how to
Thank you so much for your tip! I had already spent a several hours of my own trying to figure out how to turn off the shading after my manager had set up a template with it on. NOTE: One significant limitation of creating forms in Microsoft Word is the fact that the Help Text for form fields can only accept 138 characters. In the list of Field names, select a field. I had the same experience–lots of sites with no answer, but this works. To insert a field using the Field dialog box: Navigate to the location in the Word document where you want to insert a field. Why does Microsoft make this so complicated? Thanks! I must have clicked every button in Word trying to get rid of that damn shading! I never would have figured that out on my own, and Word Help wasn’t much help. =DĮxactly what I was looking for (after so many failed attempts to find the answer), and it was such an easy solution!Thank you!!

Thanks for letting me know this tutorial helped you! I don’t always get it right because sometimes I misunderstand the question or don’t know what version the person is using… But I always hope that my readers will let me know if something doesn’t work as described. I looked at about 5 sites previous to this one and they were all wrong! This one actually works, nice one! Please add to the discussion using the comment box at the end of the page.) (These comments are from a previous commenting system. To protect a form in Word 2007, on the Developer tab, click Protect Document in Word 2010, click Restrict Editing. If you use Legacy form fields, you have to protect your form for filling in form fields, otherwise the form will not work. To configure a Legacy form field, right-click it and select Properties. The gray shading in the form field is now gone

For text form fields, you can select from either plain text or rich text formats. For example, you can attach a macro to a Legacy form field, but you cannot attach macros to one of the new content controls.Ĭontent controls are new for Word 2007. Legacy form fields have more configuration options available than Word 2007/2010 content controls, which is why they are still used.

If the form is saved as a Word 97 – 2003 (.doc) document, you must use legacy form fields to create your form. There are three types available: text, checkbox, and drop-down list. Legacy form fields are a carry over from Word 2003 and earlier versions. Types of Microsoft Word form fieldsįirst, for the benefit of users who are new to using Microsoft Word forms, let me give a brief explanation of the two types of text form fields available in Word 2007 and Word 2010: legacy and content controls. Prof.Note: To create or edit form fields in Word 2007/2010/2013, you must first Show the Developer tab in the Ribbon. As computer scientists we are trained to communicate with the dumbest things in the world – computers – so you’d think we’d be able to communicate quite well with people. "Field shading always" makes the cross referenced text display in the grey box (marked with green arrow) "Show bookmarks" puts the braces around the words (marked with yellow highlight). With those 2 options you can more easily identify where bookmarks are cross references exist ie (Optional) make sure that Field shading is set to "Always". (Optional) Make sure that "Show Bookmarks" is turned on In File menu > Options command >Advanced option > Document Content section:
