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How to add fillable form on word document

Anonymous
2023-10-16T15:22:51+00:00

I am editing an old word document made by someone else. They have used a method to make the document fillable unknown to me but I need to replicate it to the new section I have added. As you can see in attached image there are grey icon symbols (circled in red) When you start typing is looks like the [Example]

No idea how to recreate this in the 3 boxes with arrows in. Any help would be appreciated.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-10-16T16:28:17+00:00

    Hi Scott,

    Thanks for contacting us,

    Certainly! To create a fillable form in Word, you can use content controls. Here's how you can replicate the fillable fields in the new section:

    1. **Enable Developer Tab**:
      • Go to the **File** menu.
      • Click on **Options**.
      • In the **Word Options** dialog, select **Customize Ribbon**.
      • Check the box next to **Developer** in the right column.
      • Click **OK**.
    2. **Insert Content Controls**:
      • Click on the **Developer** tab in the ribbon.
      • Use the following content controls for your form:
        • **Text Box**: For plain text input.
        • **Combo Box**: For drop-down lists.
        • **Check Box**: For checkboxes.
        • **Date Picker**: For selecting dates.
    3. **Customize Content Controls**:
      • Right-click on a content control and choose **Properties**.
      • Set properties like placeholder text, default values, etc.
    4. **Test Your Form**:
      • Save your document and test it by filling out the form fields.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-forms-that-users-complete-or-print-in-word-040c5cc1-e309-445b-94ac-542f732c8c8b

    I hope this helps!

    Regards, Sola

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  2. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-10-17T11:16:19+00:00

    The square brackets could still be bookmarks. A single-point bookmark is displayed as an I-beam; bookmarked text is indicated by the brackets. But your experience indicates that none of them are bookmarks, and it appears they indicate exceptions to Restricted Editing. To my mind that is not the best way to create a form. Forms using legacy form fields require the document to be protected for forms, but forms using content controls require no protection, meaning that spell checking and other features are still available.

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-10-16T18:48:55+00:00

    The grey symbols you show indicate bookmarks. Possibly the form is filled using a UserForm to collect information and write it to the bookmarks?

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  4. Charles Kenyon 166.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-10-16T17:44:59+00:00

    Those are likely not Content Controls but legacy form fields.

    Work with a copy until you get it right.

    See::

    Sola is correct that the Developer Tab is the key to making modifications.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-10-17T08:32:36+00:00

    Thanks, this is in the right direction. I've added a bookmark which adds the cursor icon. However it doesn't behave the same way as the others in the document. When I type in the others the icon changes into squared brackets whereas a bookmark doesn't. I also went to options and hid all bookmarks. This hid the one I added but not the rest of the cursor icons in the document which suggest they arn't bookmarks after all!

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