WORD 2003 - form field function/question

[Jennifer]

I have WORD 2003 and I'm making a template for a client who wants to have the
text form fields display different text when you roll over them. I told the
client I do not believe this is possible.

I've explained to the client that the form field can display text such as
"Insert Title Here". Which I believe should be more then enough detail for a
user to understand.

However the client wants to now not only display "Insert Title Here" in the
form field, but also still some how link to a (lengthy) example title. The
client is now hoping this can be done by having links in the WORD template
point to specific text in a pdf document.

Does anyone have any suggestions on whether I should push back on the
client, or is there a way to display or link to alternate text for a text
form field in WORD?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have WORD 2003 and I'm making a template for a client who wants to
have the text form fields display different text when you roll over
them. I told the client I do not believe this is possible.

I've explained to the client that the form field can display text
such as "Insert Title Here". Which I believe should be more then
enough detail for a user to understand.

However the client wants to now not only display "Insert Title Here"
in the form field, but also still some how link to a (lengthy)
example title. The client is now hoping this can be done by having
links in the WORD template point to specific text in a pdf document.

Does anyone have any suggestions on whether I should push back on the
client, or is there a way to display or link to alternate text for a
text form field in WORD?

A text form field can display help text in the status bar (which most users
never look at) or "F1 help" (which requires them to press F1 to see it, and
in any case is limited to, I think, about 250 characters). These things can
be set up by going to the field's Properties dialog and clicking the Add
Help Text button.

Anything different from that would have to be created by adding a macro to
the template. The drawback is that many users (or their IT departments)
block all macros. If that isn't a concern for your client, then you can
insert a macro to pop up a message box or a userform to display a chunk of
text, and assign the macro as the entry macro of the text field.

The macro can get the text for its message from autotext in the template
itself, from a separate Word document or text file, even from a database. It
_cannot_ read a PDF file; if the client's text is already in PDF only, it
will have to be converted to something Word can read.

Another alternative would be to place hyperlinks in the form next to (not
in) the form fields that would open the help text in the default browser. To
get hyperlinks to work in a protect form, again you need a macro; see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/HLinksInForms.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[AncientBrit]

Hi Jay

I'm coming late to this thread - hope that's OK.

I have a similar situation - I'm modifying an existing set of templates
for a client using Word 2003, and I've hit what may be a bug (still
looking for confirmation of that).

When I add the Help text to a text form field (doesn't matter whether
it's for F1 or status bar viewing) nothing shows up, and that's
puzzling.

I can find no setting that would indicate it can be switched on/off.

Any thoughts?

If I find that it's a known bug, maybe even patched already (this is a
corporate environment that is way behind the curve) I'll post back here.

Grateful for any suggestions,

Peter

 

[undisclosed]

..

When I add the Help text to a text form field (doesn't matter whethe
it's for F1 or status bar viewing) nothing shows up, and that'
puzzling
..
If I find that it's a known bug, maybe even patched already (this is
corporate environment that is way behind the curve) I'll post back here
Pete

It turned out to be a corrupt image. Once IT had re-imaged the drive
the error stopped

Pete