Why can't I protect forms?

[Guest]

The new form elements do not work like the old version of office. How can I
just get the form item without the text "window" and all of the formatting
stuff that is now attached? Also, after adding any of these items to a
document, when I try to turn on the forms protection, the "APPLY PROTECTION"
button is ghosted out! What is going on with this?

If I copy a form element from an old document made with a previous version
of Word, everything works fine! Does anyone know the answers to this.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

From the View menu, select Toolbars and then check the Forms item. You can
lock and unlock a simple form using the padlock button. For a more complex
form where some sections will remain unprotected, you must use the
Protection item on the Tools menu and in the task pane that appears, check
the "Editing Restrictions" box and then from the dropdown below it, select
"Filling in Forms" You will find by that time that the "Yes, Start
Enforcing Protection" button is enabled.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?Q2hpbGlib2I=?=,

The new form elements do not work like the old version of office. How can I
just get the form item without the text "window" and all of the formatting
stuff that is now attached? Also, after adding any of these items to a
document, when I try to turn on the forms protection, the "APPLY PROTECTION"
button is ghosted out! What is going on with this?

I can't figure out what you're referring to, here.

Which version of Word are we dealing with? Where are you finding the "new form
elements", as opposed to what you worked with in the "old version of office"?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Guest]

Ok, I will try this again. I know how to create forms and lock / unlock from
previous versions of Office. This new "nightmare" version for forms has me
in fits! Old version: I click on a form element and it appeared where needed.
New version: I get the form element and an image frame with text in it such
as "checkbox1". I try to delete the frame and the form element goes away
with it. Also, the form element is automatically "sunken" 3D style. The
form element now seems to force an "image" frame with a form field name on
everything. I don't need this. If I salvage form elements that were
generated in Office 2000 from an old document with the simple dialog boxes
and no frames, everything works as it used to. OK, lets say you have a doc
with a few form elements already created;

Old version: Right click on form element (then properties) to get a simple
dialog box with needed features such as "default text/text entry format/text
type/ run macro on or off".

New version: Right click on form element (then properties), I get this huge
list of MS ACCESS style options list that has a few dozen parameters that for
the most part are unknown to the typical MS Office user. I still can't
figure out how to put default text in.

And as I said, after adding the form elements in 2003 version, it is
impossible to lock the form using the padlock or the TOOLS pull-down. I
notice from the entries in this forum that I am not the only one with this
issue. Why can't MS leave a feature alone that was working beautifully???

 

[Jay Freedman]

It sounds like you're now using items from the Control Toolbox instead of
ones from the Forms toolbar. Both of these are in both versions of Word, so
I think you're mistaken about "old" vs. "new".

These things are completely different in form and function. The Forms items
work with document protection. The Control Toolbox items are ActiveX
controls
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnword2k2/
html/odc_activeX.asp).

If you don't want the ActiveX controls (and I agree with you, they're much
harder to use), then just don't use them. Pay attention to which toolbar you
have displayed, and use only the Forms toolbar.

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