Best practices for using forms

In Office 2003, I need an excellent way to create a form that will contain
some check boxes, date text box, dropdown controls, short answer type text
boxes, and long memo type spaces. I'm skilled at using the graphics and I
know about the Forms Toolbar, etc; I'm a veteran user, but not a veteran form
maker.

But, I'm hoping to draw on the experience of some pro's in this area; I
would like to know best practices and best methods for design. i.e. Do I use
a table and snap the controls into the cells; should I design a graphical
form that displays when the file is opened that contains the data (will it
even retain the info after the file is closed and reopened?), etc. What is
the best approach?

Right now I'm leaning toward an in-document form that is table based. Is
there a way to make the controls/graphics snap to the table cells? If so, how?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

See

Please Fill Out This Form
Part 1: Create professional looking forms in Word
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22

Part 2: Adding Automation to your Word forms.
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=46

Part 3: Learn more VBA (macros) to automate your forms.
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=119

Part 4: Use custom dialog boxes in your Word forms
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=127

Part 5: Connect your AutoForm to a database to save input time and keep
better records!
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=136


--
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

"XP" wrote in message
...
In Office 2003, I need an excellent way to create a form that will contain
some check boxes, date text box, dropdown controls, short answer type text
boxes, and long memo type spaces. I'm skilled at using the graphics and I
know about the Forms Toolbar, etc; I'm a veteran user, but not a veteran
form
maker.

But, I'm hoping to draw on the experience of some pro's in this area; I
would like to know best practices and best methods for design. i.e. Do I
use
a table and snap the controls into the cells; should I design a graphical
form that displays when the file is opened that contains the data (will it
even retain the info after the file is closed and reopened?), etc. What is
the best approach?

Right now I'm leaning toward an in-document form that is table based. Is
there a way to make the controls/graphics snap to the table cells? If so,
how?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Follow Doug's suggestions if you want to create your forms in Word; but
before going that way, consider whether Word is the right tool at all. Best
practice from a data point of view is to use an XML form editor like
InfoPath. It's not the greatest of products, but it's certainly simple to
use, you end up with reasonable looking forms, and the data-handling is
*much* more powerful: in effect your form can be automatically a front- or
back-end to a database or SharePoint forms library.



"XP" wrote in message
...
In Office 2003, I need an excellent way to create a form that will contain
some check boxes, date text box, dropdown controls, short answer type text
boxes, and long memo type spaces. I'm skilled at using the graphics and I
know about the Forms Toolbar, etc; I'm a veteran user, but not a veteran
form
maker.

But, I'm hoping to draw on the experience of some pro's in this area; I
would like to know best practices and best methods for design. i.e. Do I
use
a table and snap the controls into the cells; should I design a graphical
form that displays when the file is opened that contains the data (will it
even retain the info after the file is closed and reopened?), etc. What is
the best approach?

Right now I'm leaning toward an in-document form that is table based. Is
there a way to make the controls/graphics snap to the table cells? If so,
how?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Refer to Doug Robbins Its says all about creatin form.

But let me tell you, if you want to create a form then it is ok. But
creating a form in Adobe Acrobat is recommendable, because you can work
offline, Add few more pages to your document and then upload them again. The
main reason form are not to be filled online. It has to has help us ofline
line too. You need not have to be persistentently connected to the network
everytime. You have to progressively fill your document at leisure and not
one time.

Challa Prabhu

"XP" wrote:

In Office 2003, I need an excellent way to create a form that will contain
some check boxes, date text box, dropdown controls, short answer type text
boxes, and long memo type spaces. I'm skilled at using the graphics and I
know about the Forms Toolbar, etc; I'm a veteran user, but not a veteran form
maker.

But, I'm hoping to draw on the experience of some pro's in this area; I
would like to know best practices and best methods for design. i.e. Do I use
a table and snap the controls into the cells; should I design a graphical
form that displays when the file is opened that contains the data (will it
even retain the info after the file is closed and reopened?), etc. What is
the best approach?

Right now I'm leaning toward an in-document form that is table based. Is
there a way to make the controls/graphics snap to the table cells? If so, how?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.