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Old October 25th, 2005, 07:23 PM
Trevor Drew
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Default Form text fields are disappearing during a merge to new docume

We were trying to merge multiple records - about 8 per document - into a
document that would contain a mix of filled in fields (from our data) and
fields that the user would fill in. There must be the capability to write
into text boxes as well as to check boxes. This is being done currently by
printing a form and filling it in the old fashioned way. Even though the
filled in form doesn't need to find its way back into a database, some users
of the form thought it might be nice to have an electronic version. The
users all have wireless laptops, but we didn't have the time to whip up a web
form. The first need for it was this past Saturday. A quick modification of
the existing Word document seemed like the way to go. The fact that
drop-downs and check boses survived the merge gave me hope. I thought there
might be some way to make the text boxes survive as well.

Since then, I have experimented a bit with a macro to insert text form
fields into the merged document in place of some text phrase that could be
put in the master wherever we need a form field. Though a bit of a kludge,
it could work.

Thanks for your help.

"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

As Doug said, the two features are not designed to work together. However,
if you are using merge to fill in data from only one record, there is a
workaround. What, exactly, are you doing?
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
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"Trevor Drew" Trevor wrote in message
...
We would like to create a form that has some merged information on it, as
well as check boxes, dropdowns and form text fields. After the merge to a
new document, we would save it as a template and turn on document
protection
with a password. The recipient could then fill in the form, using the
check
boxes, drop-downs and text fields. However, when I merge the document,
the
form text fields disappear, whereas the check boxes and dropsowns don't.
How
can I make the form text fields survive the merge? We are at Word 2003
SP1.