Creating fillable electronic forms with Word 2007 is simple. You start by creating a template, adding controls to the template and then protecting the template document. The controls include text boxes, date pickers, combo boxes, and drop-down lists. With the electronic fillable forms users are able to fill out or complete forms on their computer without having to print and then manually complete the forms with pen - thus saving your organization money in the cost of paper, and ‘considering the environment by not printing’. There are also advanced scenarios where these content controls can be linked to a database.
Create a Fillable Form
Set up your environment
a) Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
b) Click Popular on the left navigation bar.
c) On the right side of page, on the Top options for working with Word section, select the check box Show Developer tab in the Ribbon, and click OK.
Open a template
a) Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click New.
b) Under Templates, click My templates.
c) Click Normal or Blank Document, and then click Template under Create New, and click OK
d) Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Save As.
e) Give your new template a file name, and then click Save.
Add content controls
Download a sample template form to use as practice, or design your own rough draft form. In this form, you can add content controls, tables, and other graphics elements.
Click the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode, and then click where you want to insert a control.
Insert a text control
The text box gives users specified area where they can enter text.
a) On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click the Rich Text control or the Text control.
Insert a drop-down list
The drop down list restricts responses to only those you specify. Using the sample document provided, place your insertion point near Certifying Agency.
a) On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click the Drop-Down List control.
b) Right click the content control that you just added, and then click Properties.
c) To create a list of choices, under Drop-Down List Properties, click Add.
d) Type a choice in the Display Name box, such as Microsoft, Oracle, or SAP
Repeat this step until all of the choices you want are in the drop-down list.
Insert a check box
Using the sample document provided, place your insertion point near Certified?
a) On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Legacy Tools.
b) Click Check Box Form Field.
c) Type a space, and then type a label for the check box.
Insert a Date Picker
Using the sample document provided, place your insertion point near Certified?
a) On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Date Picker.
Change properties for content controls
Each content control has properties that you can set or change. To change the setting, do the following.
a) Right-click the content control you want to change.
b) Click Properties, and change the properties that you want.
Add protection and prepare for distribution
You can protect individual content controls in a form template to help prevent a user from deleting or editing a particular content control or group of controls, or you can prepare a form to be distributed and filled out by locking it.
Protect the form
a) Open the form that you want to protect.
b) Select each control or several content controls to which you want to restrict protect (to select more than one control , press SHIFT and then select each control that you want to restrict.
c) On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties.
d) In the Content Control Properties dialog box, under Locking, do either of the following:
§ Select the Content control cannot be deleted check box, which allows the content of the control to be edited but the control itself cannot be deleted from the template or a document that is based on the template.
§ Select the Contents cannot be edited check box, which allows you to delete the control but does not allow you to edit the content in the control.
Prepare the form to be filled out
a) On the Developer tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.
b) In the Protect Document task pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
c) In the list of editing restrictions, select Filling in forms.
d) Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
e) To assign a password to the document so that only users who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password.
You can also choose to not to use a password. If you do use a password, it’s important that you remember this password. You cannot recover this password if you lose it; it’s as simple as that. The work around if you lose your password is to copy the contents of the form and paste it into another document and then fixing the controls where necessary.