Design complex forms in Microsoft Word

We are going to create a student evaluation form in Word 2003. You do not have to follow our example to the letter, so feel free to type in different headings to ours. Begin by creating a new, blank document (hold down the Ctrl key and press N). Type in a heading for the form (ours is ‘Student evaluation form’) and, if desired, apply some formatting to make it stand out. Now type some instructions for people reading and filling out the form – something like ‘Please fill in the form below by typing in the boxes, clicking on option boxes or using the dropdown menus where provided’. Then, click on View on the menu bar, choose Toolbars, then Forms to display the Forms Toolbar. The three buttons on the left of the Forms toolbar are used to add text boxes, tick boxes and dropdown menus to the document.

Now, enter the following text on separate lines. Course: then Day:, then Were the session objectives clearly set out?. After this last line, press Tab, type Yes, press Tab again and type No. (The Tab key moves the cursor to the next tab stop, as marked in the ruler above the page. The default tab setting is at 1.27cm intervals. To jump back a tab space, hold down the Shift key and press Tab.) Position the text cursor after ‘Course:’ and press Tab again. Click once on the Text Form Field on the Forms toolbar. A blank, grey box will now be inserted into the document.

Position the cursor after ‘Day:’ and press the Tab key until the cursor is lined up with the grey text form field box above it. This time, click on the Drop-down Form Field button on the Forms toolbar. Dropdown fields are used to present users with a specific range of options, which they pick from a list. Now, click on the Form Field Options button on the Form toolbar: this is where the options/values displayed by the dropdown menu are specified. In the Drop-down item box, type Monday, then click on the Add button underneath the box, or press the Enter key on the keyboard. Monday will now appear in the ‘Items in drop-down list’ area.

In the dropdown item box type Tuesday and again click on Add. Repeat the instructions until you have added each day of the week. Note that it is possible to change the list order by first selecting a list item and then using the up and down arrows above and below the Move label. A selected item can be deleted from the list using the Remove button (under the Add button). Finally, click on OK. The dialogue box will close. The grey form field next to the ‘Day:’ heading on the form will have Monday showing in it.

Now add a few more questions to the form. We asked ‘Did the training meet your needs and expectations?’ and gave the user the options ‘Definitely’, ‘Mainly’, ‘Partly’ and ‘Not at all’. Insert tick boxes next to each answer. We also asked ‘Do you feel that you have gained from the training?’ and gave the answers ‘Greatly’, ‘Moderately’, ‘Slightly’ and ‘Not at all’, again inserting a tick box next to each option. Then we asked ‘How could the training have been improved?’, inserting a text field for the answer. Finally we typed Date:, again using a text field for the response. Our form now looks like this.

It is possible to specify the type and format of the entered information. For example, you can specify the format of the date entered on the form. Click on the text field next to ‘Date:’, then click on the Form Field Options button (the fourth one along) on the Forms toolbar. The Text Form Field Options dialogue box will appear. Click on the dropdown arrow under the box heading Type and choose Date.

Click on the dropdown arrow in the ‘Date format:’ box and choose a style. By choosing ‘d MMM yy’ the date would be displayed as 31-Oct-09. Alternatively by selecting ‘d MMMM yyyy’ the date will display the month and year in full (for example 31 October 2009). Once a format has been selected, click on OK to close the Text Form Field Options dialogue box. Now click on the ‘Course:’ field then click on the Form Field Options button again. Ensure that the Type is set to ‘Regular text’, but change ‘Maximum length’ to 20, and the text format to ‘Title case’. Click OK.

Adding pop-up instructions to a field can ensure that the user enters data correctly into the form – Word calls this Help Text. The user can view the instructions either on the status bar (at the bottom of the screen) or by pressing F1. Click to highlight the ‘Date:’ field then click the Form Field Options button on the Forms toolbar. Click on the Add Help Text… button. There are two tabs – Status Bar and Help Key (F1). Select the Status Bar tab. Pick ‘Type your own:’ then type the following message in the box provided: Please enter dates in the following format: 31/10/09. Click OK, then OK again.

It is also possible to specify a number of options for tick boxes. Click on one of the tick boxes in the form, then click on the Form Field Options button. The Check Box Form Field Options dialogue box will open. In the ‘Check box size’ section, specify whether the tick boxes should be automatically sized (the default option) or select Exactly and use the arrows to pick an exact size. In the Default value section choose whether or not the default box should appear as checked or not. Click OK to close the dialogue box, saving any changes, or Cancel to close without saving.

Currently the form fields are shaded grey. To switch off this shading, click on the Form Field Shading button on the Forms toolbar. The grey shading will disappear. To turn it on again simply click on the Form Field Shading button again. It is also possible to add specific formatting (like bold and/or italic) to a text field. Simply click to highlight the field then apply the formatting.

A form becomes active once it has been ‘protected’. Once a form is active a user can type in the form fields but cannot make any changes to the existing text. To make the form active click on the Protect Form button on the right of the Forms toolbar. Note that all the other buttons (with the exception of the Form Field Shading button) become greyed out – they cannot be clicked. Let’s try it out. Click on the ‘Course:’ field and type in an answer. Press Tab to jump to the next field. Click on the dropdown arrow and select a day.

Press Tab to jump to the next field. With a tick box, either type an x, press the Spacebar or click on it using the mouse. (Repeat to remove a tick from the box.) Continue filling out the form, pressing Tab to move between the fields. Notice the Help Text displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen when filling in the date. After typing the date, press Tab to see the formatting applied. Having tested the form, click on Protect Form to unprotect it, then Reset Form Fields – this will clear the test entries. To finish, protect the form again – by clicking on Protect Form.

Forms are typically saved as templates. In this way, each user creates a new document based on the template with all the boxes empty and waiting to be filled in. To save the form as a template, click on the File menu and choose Save As. Type in a file name. In the ‘Save as type’ box choose Document Template. Choose a location, if necessary, then click on Save. If the default location is used, the form will be saved in the Templates folder. To access the form at a later date, click on File, then New. Click the ‘On my computer’ link (below the Templates heading). The form will be in the General tab, click on it, then click OK.