So easy it's impossible to use.

October 21, 2007 1:34 AM

Should be simple to insert a "text field" in a form template in Word 2007. Why isn't it?

All I want to do is to create the most generic text field -- just a blank to input names. Not post-processing. No database interaction. No exotica of any sort. The result will simply be printed.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with Office 2007, which messed up the interface down so much that I'm scrambling to find the simplest stuff.

Can anyone pull me through this agony?

posted by RavinDave to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I think what you want has been moved to the Developer tab, which is not displayed by default when you open Word. You have to click the "Button," open Word Options, and under Popular, click on "Show the Developer tab in the Ribbon."

Once the developer tab is there, open it, and in the Controls group, you will see the area where you can add a plain text or rich text content control.

If that is not what you meant, perhaps you were looking for the Text Box, which is under the Insert tab in the Text group.
posted by foxinthesnow at 7:18 AM on October 21, 2007

Well, that certainly helps! Not sure if I'm all the way there yet, but I appreciate the lift in that general direction. (Man, I hate getting used to a new interface in the middle of a project.)

Thx!
posted by RavinDave at 7:32 AM on October 21, 2007

I think it would be easier to insert a normal field instead of a form field. If you're not doing anything with the input, form fields are overkill. You are just looking for something that the user can type into or type over right?

I don't know where it is in Office 2007 but in 2003, you put your cursor where you want it, hit Ctrl-F9, and type in MacroButton NoMacro [Name] between the curly brackets. Replace [Name] with whatever you want it to display. Then right-click the field and select "Toggle Field Codes." Voila, you now have a field that someone can click on to type over.
posted by junesix at 8:38 AM on October 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

By the way ... I ended up tossing Wurd entirely and just doing up my forms in Acrobat. I'll still explore the MS option and I appreciate the advice, but I was running out of time. I'll go back to examine the issue later this week, using the above advice as a guide. Thx!
posted by RavinDave at 7:07 AM on October 25, 2007