Can't fill in embedded Excel sheet when Word doc is Protected

[diane]

Hi!

I created a fillinable form using Word and I embedded an Excel
worksheet into the document.

I have to Protect the Word document to allow the user to tab from
fill-in field to fill-in field in the Word part of the document but
I've discovered that when the Word document is locked then the embedded
Excel spreadsheet cannot be clicked on/activated to be filled in.
Does this make sense?

Thank you everyone!!
Diane Dennis

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Diane:

Add two Continuous type Section Breaks either side of the spreadsheet.

Protect the "other" sections, not the one containing the spreadsheet.

Do not get the section breaks too close to the embedded object or you may
suffer document corruption problems: put an intervening paragraph either
side of the object between it and the break, if you can.

Cheers

Hi!

I created a fillinable form using Word and I embedded an Excel
worksheet into the document.

I have to Protect the Word document to allow the user to tab from
fill-in field to fill-in field in the Word part of the document but
I've discovered that when the Word document is locked then the embedded
Excel spreadsheet cannot be clicked on/activated to be filled in.
Does this make sense?

Thank you everyone!!
Diane Dennis

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Diane-

Just to extend on John's suggestion, if you are inserting an Excel file
using the Insert>Object command, an embedded or linked spreadsheet
object is presented in Word as a "picture" of the content, so editing
directly in Word will still not be possible. In either case, the
spreadsheet object will need to be double-clicked, which will launch
Excel and present the content for editing using Excel's features. Also,
in the case of a linked sheet, the Excel file, itself, will have to be
available to the user.

You may prefer to use Insert>File instead. That will insert the file as
a Word Table so that the user can edit the table's content without
having to use Excel. The changes in the table will be stored in the
document only. If you do it this way, however, there is a checkbox in
the dialog window that still allows for linking to the original
spreadsheet.

Hope this is of use to you!

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Kathye-

Just had a few thoughts on this although I can't say I've ever had it
happen in PC or Mac versions of Word. Normally it takes some sort of
content to expand the header/footer boxes. That doesn't mean that the
content is visible.

Sorry if this seems basic, but have you tried going to the h/f layer
and doing a Cmd+a in the header box to see if anything gets selected?
If it does, just delete it & the header box will shrink back to normal
size. That should solve the problem for that doc.

If the same problem occurs when you create fresh new documents, it
suggests that the normal document template has either been modified or
corrupted. I that case it may be fixable, but could require copying in
a "clean" version. Worst case would be to reinstall Word, but probably
not necessary.

Hope this helps!

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, I have seen it happen ONCE only, in a document that had its master
section break corrupted beyond repair. I think it was in one of the beta
builds of Word X, but don't quote me on that, I can't remember.

Hi Kathye-

Just had a few thoughts on this although I can't say I've ever had it
happen in PC or Mac versions of Word. Normally it takes some sort of
content to expand the header/footer boxes. That doesn't mean that the
content is visible.

Sorry if this seems basic, but have you tried going to the h/f layer
and doing a Cmd+a in the header box to see if anything gets selected?
If it does, just delete it & the header box will shrink back to normal
size. That should solve the problem for that doc.

If the same problem occurs when you create fresh new documents, it
suggests that the normal document template has either been modified or
corrupted. I that case it may be fixable, but could require copying in
a "clean" version. Worst case would be to reinstall Word, but probably
not necessary.

Hope this helps!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[diane]

Hi John and CyberTaz!

Thank you for your help.

I think I didn't explain my situation correctly...

I've created a fill-in-able Word document that has tables that contain
cells with "boiler-plate" text and cells with fill-in fields that the
user will tab through and fill in.

In the middle of this Word document I've embedded an Excel worksheet
that will also need to be filled in when the rest of the Word document
is filled in.

In order to fill in the embedded Excel worksheet the user has to
double-click the embedded worksheet to "activate" it. This works just
fine as long as the Word document is not locked/protected.

Once the Word document is locked/protected however, which is needed to
A) allow the user to tab from fill-in field to fill-in field in the
Word document and B) to protect the "boiler-plate" text sections, it's
then no longer possible to "activate" that embedded Excel worksheet.
You can click on it to your heart's content and it just sits there
unbothered...

I've embedded a worksheet because it's easier to do formulas in
spreadsheets than in Word but Word is friendlier to custom layouts than
Excel is. I need the math functionality of Excel and the design
functionality of Word.

CyberTaz, I tried to Insert>File instead of Insert>Object but I'm
having two problems... 1) When I try to insert "Entire Worksheet" all
I get is a bunch of strange wavy lines (possibly an indication that the
"Entire Worksheet" is too large for the area in the Word document) and
2) I can't specify a cell range because it won't let me enter more than
one cell (ie: I can enter A1 but I can't enter A1...H10 or A1-H10, it
won't let me enter a range). If I could find out how to specify a cell
range when inserting the file then I might get away from the strange
wavy lines that occur when inserting the Entire Sheet.

John, I'm not sure what you mean by "continuous type section breaks"...
If your suggestion is still applicable can you please tell me where I
can learn more about these breaks?
Thank you again to both of you for your help!

Sincerely,
Diane Dennis

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Hello Diana,

Hopefully... The solution to your situation is what John suggested, a
"Continuous Section Break". By dividing your document into sections, you
can now specify which parts of your document you want Protected and which
ones you do not. Which is useful since an embedded SpreadSheet, will not
work if it Protected.

A "Continuous Section Break" is different from a regular Section Break, only
because it does not start the new section on the next page. You can insert
one by going to: Insert | Break --> Section Break (Continuous)

So... if you're creating you're document, it would go something like this:

Forms, and Text
"Continuous Section Break"
You're embedding Excel Object
"Continuous Section Break"
More Forms and Text


When you go Tools | Protect Document... you can click the "Forms" radio
button, and then click the "Sections" button and select which sections you
want protected. (In the case of your document, it would be every section
except the one that contians the Excel Spreadsheet.)

Also, with regards to the "Insert | File..." and choosing an Excel
Spreadsheet, which is probably is not an addiquate solution to your problem
, the correct way to specify a Cell Range is to use the colon ":", such as
"A14", just like in Excel.

Hope this helps,

--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Find out everything about Microsoft Mac Newsgroups at:
[http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/community.aspx?pid=newsgroups]
Check out product updates and news & info at: [http://www.microsoft.com/mac]

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Oops, that would be "Hello Diane"...

My apologies...

Hello Diana,

Hopefully... The solution to your situation is what John suggested, a
"Continuous Section Break". By dividing your document into sections, you
can now specify which parts of your document you want Protected and which
ones you do not. Which is useful since an embedded SpreadSheet, will not
work if it Protected.

A "Continuous Section Break" is different from a regular Section Break,
only because it does not start the new section on the next page. You can
insert one by going to: Insert | Break --> Section Break (Continuous)

So... if you're creating you're document, it would go something like this:

Forms, and Text
"Continuous Section Break"
You're embedding Excel Object
"Continuous Section Break"
More Forms and Text


When you go Tools | Protect Document... you can click the "Forms" radio
button, and then click the "Sections" button and select which sections you
want protected. (In the case of your document, it would be every section
except the one that contians the Excel Spreadsheet.)

Also, with regards to the "Insert | File..." and choosing an Excel
Spreadsheet, which is probably is not an addiquate solution to your
problem , the correct way to specify a Cell Range is to use the colon ":",
such as "A14", just like in Excel.

Hope this helps,

--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Find out everything about Microsoft Mac Newsgroups at:
[http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/community.aspx?pid=newsgroups]
Check out product updates and news & info at:
[http://www.microsoft.com/mac]

Hi John and CyberTaz!

Thank you for your help.

I think I didn't explain my situation correctly...

I've created a fill-in-able Word document that has tables that contain
cells with "boiler-plate" text and cells with fill-in fields that the
user will tab through and fill in.

In the middle of this Word document I've embedded an Excel worksheet
that will also need to be filled in when the rest of the Word document
is filled in.

In order to fill in the embedded Excel worksheet the user has to
double-click the embedded worksheet to "activate" it. This works just
fine as long as the Word document is not locked/protected.

Once the Word document is locked/protected however, which is needed to
A) allow the user to tab from fill-in field to fill-in field in the
Word document and B) to protect the "boiler-plate" text sections, it's
then no longer possible to "activate" that embedded Excel worksheet.
You can click on it to your heart's content and it just sits there
unbothered...

I've embedded a worksheet because it's easier to do formulas in
spreadsheets than in Word but Word is friendlier to custom layouts than
Excel is. I need the math functionality of Excel and the design
functionality of Word.

CyberTaz, I tried to Insert>File instead of Insert>Object but I'm
having two problems... 1) When I try to insert "Entire Worksheet" all
I get is a bunch of strange wavy lines (possibly an indication that the
"Entire Worksheet" is too large for the area in the Word document) and
2) I can't specify a cell range because it won't let me enter more than
one cell (ie: I can enter A1 but I can't enter A1...H10 or A1-H10, it
won't let me enter a range). If I could find out how to specify a cell
range when inserting the file then I might get away from the strange
wavy lines that occur when inserting the Entire Sheet.

John, I'm not sure what you mean by "continuous type section breaks"...
If your suggestion is still applicable can you please tell me where I
can learn more about these breaks?
Thank you again to both of you for your help!

Sincerely,
Diane Dennis