I have a question about forms. FLET has emailed me a book report form. I have saved it as a document. The problem I am having is that as I type on the form lines, spaces, words, etc., move to the right. I understand there is a way to make the form so the form and the words already on it never move when being typed on. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks!
Enable overwrite perhaps? Press the Insert key once to enable it and press it again to disable it. This works for Word and several other word processors. It replaces the character immediately to the right of the cursor with whatever is typed. Double-clicking OVR at the bottom may also work for Word.
Hi plantagenet, I have tried this and it does not work. May I email you the document and you can perhaps figure it out for me? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, Jimmy
They never ask the right people for help! Jimmy, You haven't even said what word processor you're using. I wish I had a nickel for every time in my 30 years in this biz that an end-user posed his/her question(s) like this and then expected an actual answer. [sigh] Assuming it's Microsoft Word, yes, it's true, forms can be made to behave precisely that way. But whomever created the form in the first place needed to have gone to the trouble of specifying all the form fields and then properly locking them. Said fields would appear as gray boxes (which only appear on the screen, by the way, and don't appear when printed) that can be clicked-on with the mouse pointer to create a vertical typing cursor. As you type, the box may or may not expand, depending on how the field was set up. Sadly, many people use Word to create forms, but if you have one and don't see those gray fields, then it's likely said form was created using Word, but was actually only intended to be printed-out and filled-in by hand. I've seen this many times. People have a web site and put a link to a Word .DOC file and call it a "form" (or email one to you) but then when one opens it, it doesn't really have any form fields, that are properly formatted and locked, anywhere on it... just lines, like a form that would normally be printed-out and could be filled-in by hand. Such a form isn't really an automated, online form for use on-screen at all. I fear this is what you have. If the document is editable (and clearly it is, or you wouldn't be able to type on it and have whatever's to the right of the cursor move on you), then it's most definitely possible for you to insert the form fields yourself in the right places using Word's FORMS toolbar. Then you'd lock them and thereafter you could type into them, as you've told us you'd like to do. But that's really something that whomever created the form should have already done for you -- at least if s/he intended for you to fill it in on the screen. And you should know that it will probably involve a major overhaul of the document, generally. It's not as easy as it first seems to turn an existing form with all its horizontal lines on which one would normally hand-write (were the form printed onto paper), and put form fields in their place or atop them such that whatever you type into said fields appears to have been typed onto the horizontal line of the form. Such a thing is much more easily done using a bona fide form-filler software product into which one would either scan or import the form, and then the fields would simply be defined, sized and configured as easily as drawing a graphic box and filling-in a few fields on a pop-up dialog wherein one would specify the form's properties. This exact same type of process would also be easy using Adobe Acrobat (and I don't mean the free reader but, rather, the full-blown Acrobat product, which includes the Acrobat "Exchange" module). At any rate, if you insist on trying to turn the form document file into a bona fide Word form I could go into the minute details here, but there are many, many places on the web with excellent information and tutorial to which it would be faster and easier for me to refer you, to wit: Word Forms: An Overview The Forms Toolbar Creating a Word Form Working with Form Fields Using Word Forms SOURCE: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire's Microsoft Word XP 2002 Online Help Good luck! And next time, remember who to ask first!
I forgot about the joys of variable width fonts. I spend too much time with text editors such as Emacs and vi - so much simpler, if one can memorise the rather arcane shortcuts. I shall leave all such questions to the experts from now.
DesElms, Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, it's Microsoft Word. I think I just assume everyone uses this, ha! Thanks too, plantagenet, for you willingness to assist. I lost so many points off papers at CCHS, enough to prevent me from getting a couple "A's" as final grades, that I want to make sure I don't lose formatting points at FLET. Thanks again and both of you have a great day!
