Creating Forms

Forms are a way of life now, someone is always asking you for information and in order to do that, you must  complete or fill out a form. What is a form? If you think about it, a form is a convenient, though not always simple, method to collect the essential bits of information about a subject … whether it is a job application or a tax form.

About Word Forms Creating a New Form Form Field Properties
Using Help Messages Protecting Forms Using and Printing Forms

About Word Forms

You can create forms in either Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access, or Microsoft Excel. Which one should you use? To be honest, it really depends upon the purpose of the form, and the kind and type of data you will collect using the form. Use these bullet points as a guideline:

A Word Form is a Template

When you create a form in Word, you are in effect creating a special kind of Word template. Each time you use the form for data collection, you are in reality creating a new Word document based upon the template represented by your form.

Form Protection

Given that, the best way to use a form is to create it and then protect it. By doing this, the user cannot change the form, s/he can only move from one data entry field to another to enter the desired information.

Creating a New Form
  • If you already have a form on paper that you wish to duplicate, simply use it as a pattern and create the Word form
  • If you do not have a form already to duplicate, then you probably should plan what you need first before jumping into the Word form creation process.

To Create a Template Form or Not?

If you create a template, than that form will always be available for you each time you need a new, blank form. 

Start a new template

  • Choose FileNew 
  • Click the “Template” radio button
  • Select an existing template to use as a guide, or choose Blank Document
  • Click
  • Choose FileSave As 
    • It is always a good idea to save what you have started under a different name so that you do not accidentally make changes to the template!
  • Enter a name for your new template
  • Click
    • Note that the default location to save a new template is in the Template folder
    • By saving here, this template will now be available each time you open the New dialog box

The New Dialog Box. Under the General tab, you will see one or more templates. Shown here are those I have created, your list will be different. Note the other tabs for other types of templates. Click the Template radio button so that what you create will be saved as a Word Template, not a Word Document.

Any template that you create will be stored on your hard drive in the Templates directory/folder within the Microsoft directory/folder. Thus, any templates that you create will always be available to you by simply opening the New Dialog Box from within any Microsoft Office application.

If you are creating a form that will not be used repeatedly, then you can generally skip the “Create a New Template” step and just start with a blank Word document.

So when should you create a form as a template?

The decision is entirely up to you. Here is the rule-of-thumb that I use: 

The 3- or 4-Step Process to Creating a Good Form

  1. Start a new template. (optional, steps as described above)
  2. Enter the desired text, interspersed with the necessary fields where data will be entered.
  3. Protect the form template 
  4. Save the form in an appropriate place
    1. in the Templates directory/folder within the Microsoft directory/folder if a Template form
    2. or in a place of your choosing is this form is to be used by others

Adding Text and Inserting Form Fields

The Forms Toolbar 

The Forms Toolbar.
This toolbar is specifically designed for working with forms.

To Shade or Not to Shade?

Form fields can appear shaded in gray in your document, or not shaded. It is up to you. If shaded, the “blanks” to be filled in do stand out. However, if not shaded, you can still underline the fields so that they appear as a traditional “blank” to be filled in.

Form Field Shade buttonclick this button to turn on or turn off form field shading

Form Field Properties

You can customize each form field. To do so, you must open the Options Dialog Box for the field. There are three different ways to open this dialog box:

Text Form Field OptionsCheck Box Field OptionsDrop-Down List Options

 

Text Form Field Options

Text Form Field Options Dialog Box
The Text Form Field Options Dialog Box
 

When you click on the Type down arrow in this box, you will reveal a drop-down list with six different types of text entries. Each is explained below.

 Text Field Types
Regular Text Number Date Current date or Current time Calculation

Checkbox Form Field Options

There is not much you can do to a check box field, it is either on (checked) or off (not checked).

Drop-Down List Field Options

Whenever the information for a field is limited to a list of choices, often called a “pre-defined list”, it is best to use a Drop-Down List Field. This ensures that there are no invalid entries and that the entries are made in the format you desire. For example, if the field is for the state of residence, and you want to use the postal abbreviation for the states, then create a list of states using the 2-letter abbreviation. The bottom line is that the drop-down list gives the user a choice of valid field values and the user must make his/her selection from this list.

 To create your list of items, you use the Drop-Down Form Field Options dialog box.

Pre-defined lists often include as the first choice what is commonly referred to as a “prompt”. What is meant by a “prompt”? Often when you present the user with a list of choices, data entry can be made user-friendly by having the first choice a suggestion as to what the user is asked to do. This is known as a “prompt”. For example, if you are completing a form with your address, the first item in the list of states might be “Select State”. There is also a nice added benefit of having a “prompt”. You will know if the user fails to make a selection because the default choice, the “prompt”, will still be the answer. Review the “Personal Computing Profile” in the syllabus to see how I used prompts. In Word forms, you can also use Help Text as a prompt. More about that next.

 

Using Help Messages

You can include helpful text with any form field to assist users in the completion of the form. These messages can appear at the bottom of the screen in the status bar, in a Help Dialog Box when the F1 key is pressed, or both. It is your choice.

Help Text can serve the same function as prompts! See previous section.

Protecting Forms

Now that you have created the form with all of its fields, what should you do next? Protect It! When you protect a form:

To protect a form

  • choose ToolsProtect Document to open the Protect Document dialog box 
  • click the Forms radio button
  • enter a password (note this is optional but read below)
  • clickOK button
  • you will now be asked to reenter your password
  • clickOK button
  • once protected a form cannot be edited without
    unlocking it via the password
 Protect Document Dialog Box

To unprotect a form

 
You can also protect a form simply by clicking the Protect Button on the Forms Toolbar. By clicking this button, Word protects the form without asking for a password. Click the button again to unprotect. This is fine during the design phase of the form. However, you may want the extra protection of password protection once the form is actually used by others.

Using and Printing Forms

Now that your form is completed, protected and saved, it is ready for the public to use! 

If the form was saved as a Word template

If the form was not saved as a Word template

Print a Form

Printing a form is really not any different from printing any Word document. The only thing that you may want to consider, if the form contains several graphic objects and explanatory text, you may want to only print the data that has been entered. To do so:

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Copyright©2003
last updated August 12, 2003