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#1
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Text form fields
Hello,
And, Thanks for your time, help, and advise!! I have several documents that have many form fields. When additional form fields are added and then the form document is PROTECTED and SAVED the order of the TAB selection to enter data for the next field is now out of the expected order. Also, the first field in the document (an added field at the top of the document) is not the expected hilighted field when the document is first opened. This would be expected since additional form fields have been added either between current form fields or at the begining of the document. Question is, can the order of the form fields be reset with a Word 97 tool bar selection and SAVED so that when the document is first entered the first form field in the file is the first active field hilited and the TAB will progress through the form in the physical order of the form fields in the word document file? If not, would there be a macro that can be excuted to reorder these form fields? Thanks for your time, help and advise!!! Jerry |
#2
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Hi Jerry,
You can control the tab order with a macro. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm for an example. Your description seems odd, though, because the default behavior of fields in a protected form is exactly what you're asking for -- start in the field closest to the beginning of the document, and go through sequentially left to right and top to bottom. Normally you would need a macro only if the desired sequence is different (often people want to go down a column of a table and then rightward to the next column). Look in your template to see whether there is already a macro controlling the order -- if so, that needs to be updated when you add new fields. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Jerry wrote: Hello, And, Thanks for your time, help, and advise!! I have several documents that have many form fields. When additional form fields are added and then the form document is PROTECTED and SAVED the order of the TAB selection to enter data for the next field is now out of the expected order. Also, the first field in the document (an added field at the top of the document) is not the expected hilighted field when the document is first opened. This would be expected since additional form fields have been added either between current form fields or at the begining of the document. Question is, can the order of the form fields be reset with a Word 97 tool bar selection and SAVED so that when the document is first entered the first form field in the file is the first active field hilited and the TAB will progress through the form in the physical order of the form fields in the word document file? If not, would there be a macro that can be excuted to reorder these form fields? Thanks for your time, help and advise!!! Jerry |
#3
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Hello Jay,
Thanks for that FAST Reply!!!! Just took another look at the details of one of the documents and how it was constructed, plus along with its history..... Not a pretty site! The original creation of all of the documents was from scanned documents using a flat bed scanner (Microtek E3) and the CAERE OMNIFORM 4.0 product. Then while in the CAERE application the scanned file was "SAVED AS" a .rtf file. When the .RTF was opened with WORD 97 it was modified to correct the scanner problems, then PROTECTED as a FORM and saved as a .DOC file. The final result was that many Frames were created and in each Frames is a Text Form Field. After finding that Frames were created with a Text Form Field a DOC test file was created and the following was found: Seems you are right in a document that has only the placement of Text Form Fields. The order is just as you specified. But, when a document has FRAMES and in these FRAMES is a Text Form Field the order to TAB is based on the order of the placement of Frames. So, now that this situation is known is there a way to re- order the Frames? THANKS for your time, help, and advise!!!! Jerry -----Original Message----- Hi Jerry, You can control the tab order with a macro. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm for an example. Your description seems odd, though, because the default behavior of fields in a protected form is exactly what you're asking for -- start in the field closest to the beginning of the document, and go through sequentially left to right and top to bottom. Normally you would need a macro only if the desired sequence is different (often people want to go down a column of a table and then rightward to the next column). Look in your template to see whether there is already a macro controlling the order -- if so, that needs to be updated when you add new fields. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Jerry wrote: Hello, And, Thanks for your time, help, and advise!! I have several documents that have many form fields. When additional form fields are added and then the form document is PROTECTED and SAVED the order of the TAB selection to enter data for the next field is now out of the expected order. Also, the first field in the document (an added field at the top of the document) is not the expected hilighted field when the document is first opened. This would be expected since additional form fields have been added either between current form fields or at the begining of the document. Question is, can the order of the form fields be reset with a Word 97 tool bar selection and SAVED so that when the document is first entered the first form field in the file is the first active field hilited and the TAB will progress through the form in the physical order of the form fields in the word document file? If not, would there be a macro that can be excuted to reorder these form fields? Thanks for your time, help and advise!!! Jerry . |
#5
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The order of frames depends on the order of the text paragraphs to which
they're anchored. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. wrote in message ... Hello Jay, Thanks for that FAST Reply!!!! Just took another look at the details of one of the documents and how it was constructed, plus along with its history..... Not a pretty site! The original creation of all of the documents was from scanned documents using a flat bed scanner (Microtek E3) and the CAERE OMNIFORM 4.0 product. Then while in the CAERE application the scanned file was "SAVED AS" a .rtf file. When the .RTF was opened with WORD 97 it was modified to correct the scanner problems, then PROTECTED as a FORM and saved as a .DOC file. The final result was that many Frames were created and in each Frames is a Text Form Field. After finding that Frames were created with a Text Form Field a DOC test file was created and the following was found: Seems you are right in a document that has only the placement of Text Form Fields. The order is just as you specified. But, when a document has FRAMES and in these FRAMES is a Text Form Field the order to TAB is based on the order of the placement of Frames. So, now that this situation is known is there a way to re- order the Frames? THANKS for your time, help, and advise!!!! Jerry -----Original Message----- Hi Jerry, You can control the tab order with a macro. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm for an example. Your description seems odd, though, because the default behavior of fields in a protected form is exactly what you're asking for -- start in the field closest to the beginning of the document, and go through sequentially left to right and top to bottom. Normally you would need a macro only if the desired sequence is different (often people want to go down a column of a table and then rightward to the next column). Look in your template to see whether there is already a macro controlling the order -- if so, that needs to be updated when you add new fields. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Jerry wrote: Hello, And, Thanks for your time, help, and advise!! I have several documents that have many form fields. When additional form fields are added and then the form document is PROTECTED and SAVED the order of the TAB selection to enter data for the next field is now out of the expected order. Also, the first field in the document (an added field at the top of the document) is not the expected hilighted field when the document is first opened. This would be expected since additional form fields have been added either between current form fields or at the begining of the document. Question is, can the order of the form fields be reset with a Word 97 tool bar selection and SAVED so that when the document is first entered the first form field in the file is the first active field hilited and the TAB will progress through the form in the physical order of the form fields in the word document file? If not, would there be a macro that can be excuted to reorder these form fields? Thanks for your time, help and advise!!! Jerry . |
#6
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Hi Jay,
Oh well,,,,after finding this out I guess I'll have to do the best I can. As you said it is a real big mess,,,,,but lucky for each file there has been only a few Frames that have been deleted and recreated during the "clean up" making the so called anchor out of order. These can be moved so the TAB order will be correct. In every case each document has no created of clear text as if it were created from the keyboard,,,, the scan and OCR to create the form by the Caere Application placed everything in text boxes, and for the form line it created a Frame and put in a Text Form Field. The original cursor, for instance on a newly created document is in the upper left corner. That's where it is on each of these documents. I was hoping for a macro or .exe to reset the so called anchor value for the Frames(???). OK,,,,and thanks for the advise and your time!!! Jerry -----Original Message----- Hi Jerry, I'm afraid you've got quite a mess on your hands. It may turn out to be less work to recreate the whole document from scratch than to try to straighten it out. As you found, the tab order of the fields in the frames is determined by the order of the frames. The thing that determines the frame order is the placement of their anchors within the regular text paragraphs. If you go to Tools Options View and turn on Object Anchors, you can see each frame's anchor in the left margin when you select that frame. Because the frames can float (be dragged around the page) while their anchor points are in specific text paragraphs, you can easily get a situation where frame A appears higher or further to the left than frame B, but frame B's anchor comes before frame A's anchor. The tab order in that situation will be B and then A. Even worse, many frames can be anchored to the same text paragraph, and then you can't tell what order they're in. If each one is anchored to a different paragraph, at least then you can drag the anchors into the right order. If only a few of your fields are out of order, it's worth moving those anchors, creating new pararaphs to put them in if necessary. If it's dozens of them, and their anchors are jammed together in bunches, then I think it's easier to start over. Use a borderless table instead of frames, placing one form field per cell. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org wrote: Hello Jay, Thanks for that FAST Reply!!!! Just took another look at the details of one of the documents and how it was constructed, plus along with its history..... Not a pretty site! The original creation of all of the documents was from scanned documents using a flat bed scanner (Microtek E3) and the CAERE OMNIFORM 4.0 product. Then while in the CAERE application the scanned file was "SAVED AS" a .rtf file. When the .RTF was opened with WORD 97 it was modified to correct the scanner problems, then PROTECTED as a FORM and saved as a .DOC file. The final result was that many Frames were created and in each Frames is a Text Form Field. After finding that Frames were created with a Text Form Field a DOC test file was created and the following was found: Seems you are right in a document that has only the placement of Text Form Fields. The order is just as you specified. But, when a document has FRAMES and in these FRAMES is a Text Form Field the order to TAB is based on the order of the placement of Frames. So, now that this situation is known is there a way to re- order the Frames? THANKS for your time, help, and advise!!!! Jerry -----Original Message----- Hi Jerry, You can control the tab order with a macro. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm for an example. Your description seems odd, though, because the default behavior of fields in a protected form is exactly what you're asking for -- start in the field closest to the beginning of the document, and go through sequentially left to right and top to bottom. Normally you would need a macro only if the desired sequence is different (often people want to go down a column of a table and then rightward to the next column). Look in your template to see whether there is already a macro controlling the order -- if so, that needs to be updated when you add new fields. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Jerry wrote: Hello, And, Thanks for your time, help, and advise!! I have several documents that have many form fields. When additional form fields are added and then the form document is PROTECTED and SAVED the order of the TAB selection to enter data for the next field is now out of the expected order. Also, the first field in the document (an added field at the top of the document) is not the expected hilighted field when the document is first opened. This would be expected since additional form fields have been added either between current form fields or at the begining of the document. Question is, can the order of the form fields be reset with a Word 97 tool bar selection and SAVED so that when the document is first entered the first form field in the file is the first active field hilited and the TAB will progress through the form in the physical order of the form fields in the word document file? If not, would there be a macro that can be excuted to reorder these form fields? Thanks for your time, help and advise!!! Jerry . . |
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