Filling in a DOC form

July 7, 2006 9:19 AM

I have received an employment application as a DOC file.

I have recieved an employment application as a DOC file. I would like to fill it in and send it back while making it look like I put it into a typewriter rather than just making all my entries underlined (underlines are different line weights than the lines used). I've tried capturing it as a picture and pasting text on another layer but the result isn't very good. I've seen PDF files that were forms but I've been unable to create one of those, either. Is there a way to lock the DOC file so that I can just overtype on it?

posted by ptm to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Well, you can hit the 'insert' or 'ins' key on your keyboard (should be above the arrow keys) which will put Word or OpenOffice in overwrite (as opposed to insert) mode. When that's done, anything you type will overwrite the character after the cursor rather than being inserted. (My apologies if that's a bit too obvious).

As far the underlines go, is it possible they were created as underscores (_______) rather than underlines? If they were, you might have to do something like change all the underscores to underlined spaces in order to create a consistent look.

Word also has a feature that lets you create forms, but a little experimenting in Word 2000 shows that (at least in that version) you can't do much to force formatting (like underlining) on form fields and form fields don't draw over elements like underscore characters.
posted by jedicus at 9:34 AM on July 7, 2006

If the .doc file doesn't let you type in those fields, then most likely they want you to print it out and fill out the fields by hand.
posted by parallax7d at 9:37 AM on July 7, 2006

parallax7d

Or it's just laziness and backwardness on the part of HR. You cant try inserting a text box for each answer field (format the first text box with no fill and no border, then copy & paste it repeatedly to create new boxes). Of course this only looks good if you print the thing.

Why not just toggle off "insert" and key in the information that way? It's a rather unsightly solution, but it does get the information inserted without the ridiculous burden of your having to find a typewriter (or, worse, hand-lettering the whole thing).
posted by La Cieca at 9:42 AM on July 7, 2006

Why do you need to make your entries look different (underlined, etc). Why can't you just type your info in?

What I've sometimes done is bold the question/field and then my answers are standard text.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:43 AM on July 7, 2006

What you need to do to fix the underline problem is underline your text entry as you normally would, and then select (Tools/Options/Compatibility) draw underlines on trailing spaces.

The underline drawn on the trailing spaces will be the same weight as the underlined text and avoid the weird double underline look.

This seems easier than adding form fields.
posted by Sheppagus at 9:50 AM on July 7, 2006

deleting the lines, creating form fields which are set to underline any text (click on the form field and select the underline button or press CTRL-U), and protecting the document for fillable fields is the way I'd do it.
posted by lyam at 11:32 AM on July 7, 2006