Tables containing text form fields in a form template for Word

[Paul]

I am trying to create a form template to be filled in
using MS Word. I'm working with Word 2000. Much of the
data to be filled in is table like data, so I'm trying to
use tables. I have created a table and most of the cells
of the table have text form fields in them.

The problem is that some of the fields can vary
significantly in length so I've set the maximum length to
unlimited. What I wanted to do with the table is to use
the auto fit capability to adjust the column width of the
relevant columns to fit the text. This way, I won't have
a lot of white space when the entry is short, but I can
still handle a fairly long entry. Word seems to have a
problem with wrapping in this situation. I can enter very
few characters before the text wraps into the next line.
The column will expand as I enter more text, and the
previously warpped word(s) will migrate back to the first
line, but it seems to want to leave one word warpped at
all times. It will also do this to other columns while I
enter data into the first column, even if wrap is turned
off in the other columns and/or the column width is set
to "preferred".

Am I doing something wrong? or have I just found something
the software can't do?

Thanks for the help

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Paul,

I can't tell whether the wrap behavior you're seeing is "off"
or not, but you need to be aware that the autosizing option
is for the ENTIRE table, you can't set just single cells or
columns to "automatically resize to fit contents".

Also, this feature looks primarily at *entire words*, and
reacts less to the entire cell content than to the length of
single words that need to be accomodated.

The problem is that some of the fields can vary
significantly in length so I've set the maximum length to
unlimited. What I wanted to do with the table is to use
the auto fit capability to adjust the column width of the
relevant columns to fit the text. This way, I won't have
a lot of white space when the entry is short, but I can
still handle a fairly long entry. Word seems to have a
problem with wrapping in this situation. I can enter very
few characters before the text wraps into the next line.
The column will expand as I enter more text, and the
previously warpped word(s) will migrate back to the first
line, but it seems to want to leave one word warpped at
all times. It will also do this to other columns while I
enter data into the first column, even if wrap is turned
off in the other columns and/or the column width is set
to "preferred".

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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