Hour 19. Electronic Forms

If you or your coworkers often fill out simple forms by hand, or fill in the same small pieces of information in a Word document over and over, you may find it easier to create a form in Word that you and your officemates can use. A Word form is a document that contains form fields , such as text fields, check boxes, and drop-down lists. Users press the Tab key to move from field to field, filling in information as they go. Outside of the fields, forms are protected, so users can't format the document or change it other than by filling in fields. In this hour, you will learn the basics of creating and using forms. Keep in mind that if you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), you can greatly extend the power of forms with VBA macros and ActiveX controls.

The highlights of this hour include

Creating forms for use in Word or as printed documents
Filling in forms
Making changes to forms
Exploring options for extending the functionality of forms