Is it possible to place a form field within an Autoshape?
No.
When the cursor is in an AutoShape, the buttons on the Forms toolbar are
disabled. If you create a form field outside the AutoShape and try to copy/paste
it into the shape, you get a message box that says "You cannot paste form fields
into comments, headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, or text boxes." In Word's
internal structure, text boxes are a specific type of AutoShape, and the
prohibition applies to all AutoShapes.
If the AutoShape is just a box, you can put the form field in a frame or a table
cell and use the Borders and Shading dialog to make the box.
If you want some other shape, what you can do is this:
- Write the text and form field as regular text.
- If the form field needs to be positionable, select it and add a frame or a
one-cell table around it, and drag it into position.
- Insert the desired AutoShape, and format it with No Fill so it's transparent.
- Drag the AutoShape so it appears to surround the form field.
