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Creating an MS Word form for on screen completion
The following requires that Microsoft Word 2002 or later be installed. To check, open MS Word, then Help>About Microsoft Word.
- Open MS Word
- Creating a table. Each question will appear within a table cell. You may draw a table or choose Table > Insert > Table. See MS Word Help for details about creating tables. Here are samples of well constructed documents using tables: US Army
Tip: Table cells height and width may be restricted to prevent the alteration of the forms formatting as participants complete the form.
Windows users choose:Tables > Cell Height or Width
Mac users choose: Tables > Properties > Choose a Tab
- Type questions into each table cell and create space for an answer
- Display the Forms Toolbar (View > Toolbars > Forms)
- Move the mouse to the location where an answer box is to appear.
- Create the most appropriate field
Text field: Click the ab| icon in the Forms Toolbar.
Checkbox: Click the checkbox icon in the Forms Toolbar.
Drop Down Menu: Click the drop down menu icon
- Optional: Modify field properties by choosing the form properties icon in the forms toolbar. The "Maximum Length" option will confine text fields to a specific character length.
Note: Gray shading will appear where participants will respond. The gray shading will not appear when the form is printed.
Alert: The properties will not take effect until the document is protected (see step #9 below)
- Add all of the desired form fields following step #6.
- Lock the document by choosing Tools > Protect Document. Select "Form" Option
Alert: You must choose the "Form" Option or the form functions will not work properly.
(You will be asked to re-enter the password as a confirmation.)
- Test the document by filling in the fields as a participant would.
- Unprotect the document to modify the document. (Tools > Unprotect Document.)
- Make changes and protect the document.
- Save the document to the server.
- Place link on Web page to the document. (Follow the same method as linking to an HTML page.) Instruct participants to:
Download the form, complete the form, save the form to their hard drive, then send the form to the appropriate recipient as an attachment.
These Instructions can be place on the form itself or on the referring Web page.
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