Need help creating a flexible form.

[Steven Dennis]

I'm a veterinarian and have been using Word to write my records. I have a
standard format that includes information that I take during an exam (things
like history, and physical findings of my patients). Right now I just type
things in to a saved record sheet that does not have any data in it, but it
take a little time to click at each spot where I want to put a piece of data
in (I have to click next to history, then to the physical exam section, then
assessment, then plan, etc.) I tried creating a form with fields that I
could just tab between. This worked well, but I could not use the spell
check and unless there was a form field, I couldn't type in other information.

Is there a way to create spots that I could easly move to with the click of
a button (e.g. tab or other function key maybe), but still keep the
flexibility of a plain document so I can use the spelling and grammer tools
as well as add new stuff that I may only put in every once in a while.

Thank in advance. You can reply to this group or e-mail me directly at
(e-mail address removed)

P.S. If anyone knows of a way to convert a birth date into the age of a
person (in my case it is on an animal) that would be really really helpful.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think you might be happy with MacroButton fields. You can't tab between
them, but F11 will take you to the next field. For tips on creating them,
see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/UsingMacroButton.htm.

A document containing these fields does not require protection, and you can
type in it and edit it just as you would any other document. Once you have
started typing in one of the MacroButton fields, it is overwritten and
becomes plain text, so you can't use them more than once, but it sounds like
once will suffice. For an example of the way these fields are used, you can
look at the fax cover sheet templates that ship with Word.

I'm a veterinarian and have been using Word to write my records. I have a
standard format that includes information that I take during an exam (things
like history, and physical findings of my patients). Right now I just type
things in to a saved record sheet that does not have any data in it, but it
take a little time to click at each spot where I want to put a piece of data
in (I have to click next to history, then to the physical exam section, then
assessment, then plan, etc.) I tried creating a form with fields that I
could just tab between. This worked well, but I could not use the spell
check and unless there was a form field, I couldn't type in other information.

Is there a way to create spots that I could easly move to with the click of
a button (e.g. tab or other function key maybe), but still keep the
flexibility of a plain document so I can use the spelling and grammer tools
as well as add new stuff that I may only put in every once in a while.

Thank in advance. You can reply to this group or e-mail me directly at
(e-mail address removed)

P.S. If anyone knows of a way to convert a birth date into the age of a
person (in my case it is on an animal) that would be really really

helpful.