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How do I do expanding text boxes

Anonymous
2012-04-18T16:41:23+00:00

Hi. I am trying to create a form for my class to do book reports.  I have many different text boxes for them to fill in.  However I need some of the text boxes to be able to expand depending on the length of their answers.  I know that I could put a table in but when I went to protect the document so that no one could change anything, it wouldn't let me even click on the tales to fill in an answer.  Also how can I set it up so that I can just hit the tab key to move between each of the boxes? Thank you for any help.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Suzanne S Barnhill 277.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-04-18T23:25:16+00:00

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm and especially the forms tutorials by Dian Chapman that this article links to.

When you create your form, you can use table rows with no height specified (they will grow as needed) or specify an At Least or Exact height measurement.

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Stefan Blom 341K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-04-18T22:33:54+00:00

Each table cell where you want text to be added requires a separate text form field, and you must enforce the "Filling in forms" type of document protection (in the Restrict Formatting and Editing task pane) for the fields to be usable.

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Stefan Blom 341K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-04-18T17:42:33+00:00

You can use text form fields, which you can place inside table cells whose dimensions are fixed.

To insert form fields, first display the Developer tab (click Office button | Word Options | Popular; select the option to show the Developer tab). Then use the Legacy Tools button on the tab.

After you have designed the form and applied document protection, you can move between the fields with the Tab key.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-04-18T22:07:55+00:00

    Hello and thanks for responding. I tried to do what you said but the text form fields showed up as a small gray box and it didn;t seem to work right. Did I do something wrong? I was trying to get the different tables to just have to be clicked on and then filled in. Thanks again for the help.

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