I need to set up a form so it is mostly uneditable except for a few
blanks that a local user can fill in.

For a local condo assocation board, there are some forms that each
board member needs to send out occasionally to individuals in the
condos. These board members are not all that savvy about word
processors. When I initially sent the MSWord-based forms for them to
fill out and print on their own, they wreaked havoc with the
formatting.

I need to be able to give them a file that has a form letter with a
few blanks they can fill it, but without permitting them to do
anything to the basic form letter. What I need, I guess, is something
that would behave like a .pdf, but could have some blanks here and
there where they could fill in some info and then print it out.

Can MS Word do this?

Thanks for any info.

Lew
lwdrndn____@____msn.com (take out the underscores)

"Lew" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I need to set up a form so it is mostly uneditable except for a few
> blanks that a local user can fill in.
>
> For a local condo assocation board, there are some forms that each
> board member needs to send out occasionally to individuals in the
> condos. These board members are not all that savvy about word
> processors. When I initially sent the MSWord-based forms for them to
> fill out and print on their own, they wreaked havoc with the
> formatting.
>
> I need to be able to give them a file that has a form letter with a
> few blanks they can fill it, but without permitting them to do
> anything to the basic form letter. What I need, I guess, is something
> that would behave like a .pdf, but could have some blanks here and
> there where they could fill in some info and then print it out.
>
> Can MS Word do this?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>
> Lew
> lwdrndn____@____msn.com (take out the underscores)
>

Best to ask the experts in a Word newsgroup.

Lew <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I need to set up a form so it is mostly uneditable except for a few
> blanks that a local user can fill in.
>
> For a local condo assocation board, there are some forms that each
> board member needs to send out occasionally to individuals in the
> condos. These board members are not all that savvy about word
> processors. When I initially sent the MSWord-based forms for them to
> fill out and print on their own, they wreaked havoc with the
> formatting.
>
> I need to be able to give them a file that has a form letter with a
> few blanks they can fill it, but without permitting them to do
> anything to the basic form letter. What I need, I guess, is something
> that would behave like a .pdf, but could have some blanks here and
> there where they could fill in some info and then print it out.
>
> Can MS Word do this?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>
> Lew
> lwdrndn____@____msn.com (take out the underscores)

No - this is what a PDF form is for.

Lew wrote:
> I need to set up a form so it is mostly uneditable except for a
> few blanks that a local user can fill in.
>
> For a local condo assocation board, there are some forms that
> each board member needs to send out occasionally to individuals
> in the condos. These board members are not all that savvy
> about word processors. When I initially sent the MSWord-based
> forms for them to fill out and print on their own, they wreaked
> havoc with the formatting.
>
> I need to be able to give them a file that has a form letter
> with a few blanks they can fill it, but without permitting them
> to do anything to the basic form letter. What I need, I guess,
> is something that would behave like a .pdf, but could have some
> blanks here and there where they could fill in some info and
> then print it out.
>
> Can MS Word do this?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>
> Lew
> lwdrndn____@____msn.com (take out the underscores)

Yes. To limit where users can enter data, use Form Fields (View
> Toolbars > Forms) and protect the finished document (Tools >
Protect Document > Forms and set a password). To prevent users
from changing the formatting, you can use "tables" within the
document and specify the height/width of each cell. It's a bit
fiddly but once it's done, you can be pretty certain that the
document won't get wrecked!

Lew wrote:
> I need to set up a form so it is mostly uneditable except for a few
> blanks that a local user can fill in.
>
> For a local condo assocation board, there are some forms that each
> board member needs to send out occasionally to individuals in the
> condos. These board members are not all that savvy about word
> processors. When I initially sent the MSWord-based forms for them to
> fill out and print on their own, they wreaked havoc with the
> formatting.
>
> I need to be able to give them a file that has a form letter with a
> few blanks they can fill it, but without permitting them to do
> anything to the basic form letter. What I need, I guess, is something
> that would behave like a .pdf, but could have some blanks here and
> there where they could fill in some info and then print it out.
>
> Can MS Word do this?
I more think your issue is that most people do not own Microsoft Word, and they
are using whatever word processing program they *DO* own (probably the one that
comes with MS-Works) to open the file you send. This is no doubt the cause of
the formatting issues you've seen.

Your solution is to stop sending files in Microsoft Word format. Others have
suggested PDF, which is a good suggestion. Another possible solution would be to
send the file in Rich Text Format (RTF), but I do not know whether RTF supports
what you want to do.