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Adding Help Texxt in Word 365

Anonymous
2018-09-02T11:34:04+00:00

Hi All,

I am having difficulty in adding a help text to a fill-in form I have created.

BTW, the instructions are so vague. No where do they tell you you have to hit the protect mode for the fill in box to activate

Anyhow, I am past that. But now I want to add a help text and I am unable to get it to work

The instructions I see are to hit the design button. But my version 365 does not work the same as the instructions I see

What am I missing?

Please help. All comments greatly appreciated

Svcaramia

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435.6K Reputation points
2018-09-02T14:31:16+00:00

Charles is correct that if the instructions you were attempting to follow refer to a "Design Mode" they are for the PC version of Word... Word for Mac has no Design Mode, but I believe the real issue may be with your expectation :-)

Help Text does not display in the Text Box Form Field to which it pertains, nor does any sort of tip box appear "on rollover". Whatever is specified as Help Text appears at the left end of the Status Bar when a user tabs into the field of a Protected Form.

If you want the Text Box, itself, to display some sort of content type it into the Default Text field in the main Field Options dialog window.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-09-02T19:59:29+00:00

    By the way, it is not a combobox but rather a dropdown formfield.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-09-02T12:26:22+00:00

    Hi Charles,

    Thank you for your quick reply

    That is exactly the box I am talking about

    I select "type your own" fill it in and then OK

    Nothing saves. Its not working

    The help phrase does not show in the combo box field

    There must be a step I am missing

    Svcaramia

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-09-02T11:49:58+00:00

    Hi

    I do not have a Mac and am writing from my experiences with the Windows version. That version is similar, but the two are not the same. While I've used Word on a Mac, that was a long time ago. Nevertheless, I hope that I can be of some help. 

    You may be reading instructions for the Windows versions of Word, which have Content controls not available on the Mac. Look for instructions on older versions with legacy form fields. 

    http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/forms.htm 

    See the screenshot below. To get to that in the Windows version, with the document NOT protected, you double-click on the form or choose properties from the context menu. You can choose to have the help text show up in the status bar or respond to the F1 key. You can type individual text for each control or you can use AutoText entries that have been saved in the template for multiple controls. AutoText can only be saved in a template.

    I hope this information helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

    Regards

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