I'm creating a form using Word 2003, and one of my text fields needs to have
a maximum length of 30 words.
I can only set the maximum length in characters - can I set it to count words?
No, the field has no concept of "words". It's characters or nothing.
If you want add an exit macro to the field, you could write code that
counts the words in the field's result when the user tries to go to
the next field, and puts the cursor back into the field after showing
a message box. It would be similar to the macro in
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/ValidateFFields.htm. The
main problem with this approach is that most users will see a scary
antivirus message when they open the form, and some (who have their
security level set to High) won't be able to run the macro at all.