Prevent layout change in protected document

[Kurt]

A created a survey in MS Word 2003 using form elements (check boxes,
drop down menus, and text fields). I protected everything but the
"Filling in forms" elements. The user can click only on the form
elements and not on the text of the survey, etc.

However, if the user is in a fillable text field, he can hit the Enter
key and insert a hard return (he can insert 400 if he wants to). This
can obviously affect the overall layout of the survey. Is there a way
I can prevent this from happening (a way that doesn't involve macros)?
I tried applying a style to the survey text, and then limit the
formatting to everything but that style (Tools > Protect Document > 1.
Formatting Restrictions ...), but that had no apparent affect
(probably because Word sees the user as within the fillable text field
when he hit Enter).

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kurt

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The usual approach is to put the text form fields in table cells (they can
be unbordered) with an exact row height specified.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Kurt]

I wanted to avoid using tables because, even without table borders,
the gridlines could show depending on the user's settings. When
viewing the survey on the computer, those gridlines can make an
otherwise smooth looking survey look jumbled with row and column
grids.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Instead of turning off the table borders, set their color to white.
That will hide the borders and gridlines unless the user has taken the
somewhat unusual step of changing the window color for all Windows
programs.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Kurt]

Ahh! Very clever. Thank you..

Instead of turning off the table borders, set their color to white.
That will hide the borders and gridlines unless the user has taken the
somewhat unusual step of changing the window color for all Windows
programs.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ:http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.




- Show quoted text -