Creating a fillable form - formatting/spacing errors.

Question

I used the following page to create a template for a form using a form we had already created in Word.

In trying to create a form using a template, I encounter one major problem: spacing.  The text boxes provided in the Developer tab with its "Click here to enter text" lines set a certain spacing when they are first put into the document.  When you fill them out, however, they adjust the spacing of everything else in the document, even other fields.

Allow me to give a specific example: I have a document that says:

NAME (Click here to enter text) NEW (Choose an item) # OF YEARS (Click here to enter text)

and it all looks good on an unfilled form.  But when I start to fill it out, it changes the spacing of everything:

NAME Bob Smith NEW no # OF YEARS 3

and every filled out form will look different from the next.  I have another section in the form which has headings for:

NAME  M/F  RACE  DOB  RELATIONSHIP  SS#

and these are all spaced out properly when not filled out.  Only problem is, shorter names mean everything else is unevenly spaced; the gender field falls somewhere under the name, race falls under gender, etc.  Yes, it's functionally all present, but it looks horrible.  Sometimes the race is "Other" and elsewhere it's "Asian-American/Pacific Islander," which really screws things up. 

So bottom line, how would i make things work like in a PDF form, where the fields are immovable and unchangeable?

Zechariah Brewer

Answer 1

Set tab stops at the appropriate places and separate the content controls with tab spaces.

Answer 2

That deals with the second problem (section with NAME M/F RACE DOB RELATIONSHIP SS#) but not the first (sections such as NAME Bob Smith NEW no # OF YEARS 3 where a table is not feasible).

Answer 3

Through the Table Properties dialog.

Answer 4

Okay, so how do I do that, specifically?

Answer 5

You could put the fields in a table or at least place them with tabs.