Hi Dax,

If you switch to Word 2007, existing formfield data are preserved when you unlock/lock a form. With earlier versions, you can
preserve the existing data by locking the form with a macro coded like:
Sub LockForm()
ActiveDocument.Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields, Noreset:=True, _
Password:=InputBox("Form Pasword", "Protect Form")
End Sub

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


"Dax Arroway" wrote in message ...
Hi Doug,
Thanks for responding. F9 will work just fine. The fields are simple text
form fields. Unfortunately the documents my company uses sometimes are not
designed the best way and are missing things, such as entries in drop down
menues that aren't in the dropdown menu. Sure, there's ways to fix it but
when I'm sitting with a client filling out the form I don't have time to
update and edit forms. That said, what sometimes happens is I'll need to
unlock the locked document to make "on the fly" adjustments and if I don't
re-lock the document all data in all form fields go away as all the form
fields get reset to blank with the Update Fields option selected in the print
settings. A simple Undo replaces the data, fortunatly, and after I recover
from my heart attack I can relock the document and save it and print it
appropriately. It just makes me not want to have that option selected, and
really, the only thing thus far that I'd want that selected for to date is to
get the field to calculate on this one document. F9 will work just fine for
that. Thank you.
--
I would give my left hand to be ambidextrous!


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

You can select the field and Press F9 to update it.

However, it is perfectly normal to have the Update Fields at Print option
set on and I do not understand the issue that you have with field data
disappearing in your other documents. What sort of fields are they.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Dax Arroway" wrote in message
...
I've got a Word03 table with a column with simple numbers which I'm trying
to
Sum in a cell at the bottom. By reading other posts I discovered that one
way of doing this is to use the =Sum(Above) function and set the print
options to Update Fields upon printing to get it to calculate but since
this
is a globally set option, it does all sorts of very scary things to other
documents. If I have a document with feilds in it that isn't locked, it
resets all the feilds to blanks (extremly scary when it just took me 2 hrs
to
fill out the form!). My work also has a bunch of old docs that some
"smart"
person filled with Mergefeilds (don't even get me started) which are
extremely bothersome with this option selected (but not for anyone else
and
they all think I'm crazy!) Anyway, besides going the "Use Excel" route to
create this document, does anyone know a way of summing a column of simple
numbers in a word table??

Thanks in advance!
--Dax
--
I would give my left hand to be ambidextrous!