Function of the arrow keys?

[Guest]

In my older version of MS Word, I could use the arrow keys to move up and down in a table column. I have a new computer and I'm now using Word 02. The problem I'm having is that when I try to use the arrow keys to move up or down in one specific column, the cursor moves only right or left, never up or down. In fact, I can't seem to find any keys that will allow me to do so. Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know how to solve it?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have no problem using the up and down arrow keys to navigate in a table,
but of course they work line by line as in ordinary text, not row by row, so
if you have more than one line of text in a row, pressing the down arrow
from the first line will take you to the second line, not to the next row.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

In my older version of MS Word, I could use the arrow keys to move up and

down in a table column. I have a new computer and I'm now using Word 02. The
problem I'm having is that when I try to use the arrow keys to move up or
down in one specific column, the cursor moves only right or left, never up
or down. In fact, I can't seem to find any keys that will allow me to do so.
Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know how to solve it?

 

[Guest]

It might also help to note that I'm using a protected document. When I unprotect the document, I can use the arrow keys to move up and down in a single column. The problem is, this document has specified fields where text is entered, and therefore, it needs to be protected so that data can only be entered in these fields. If I unprotect it, then try to type in these fields, they don't respond as they are supposed to and it just seems to mess up the document. Then, when I reset the document to the protected status again, all the data in the designated fields is erased. I hope this additional information is helpful.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Scott,

That fact not only helps, it changes the entire context of the
discussion. Protected documents don't behave anything like unprotected
ones. You're supposed to use the Tab key to go from one form field to
another. If you don't like the order in which Word visits the fields,
you can change that with a macro -- see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm.

You shouldn't try to fill in a form when it's unprotected; that's
meant only for designing the form. If you need to unprotect a form
temporarily to do some operation such as spell-checking, you need a
macro to reprotect it without losing the entered data, as described in
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/TurnFmFlfResetOff.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/SpellcheckProtectDoc.htm.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Jay. That sounds like the information I needed. I'll give it a try.