Word is a powerful tool that you can use to quickly create forms that you can either print or send via email. If you need to create a survey that will go out to many people and you want all the responses tallied for your automatically, it might be best to use Google Docs to create the survey.
In this article, I’ll show you how to create a form with text boxes, check boxes, a date picker and a list box. You can also make your forms a lot better looking if you use tables to organize everything.
Enable Developer Tab
To create forms in Word, you must enable the Developer tab in the ribbon. This is not used by a lot of people, so Microsoft disabled it by default. To enable the tab, click on File and then Options.
In the Developer box, you can set up your ribbon to look more like the one in the screenshot on the right.
In the Controls section, click on the ellipsis (…) button and select Customize Ribbon. In the Customize Ribbon dialog box, under the tab named Views, click on the arrow next to the Text Box control and select Edit Text. Type in your name and press Enter. The text box now displays your name. ..
Creating a Form in Word
The Controls section of a Word document has eight different controls that can be added to your document: Rich Text, Plain-Text, Picture, Building Block Gallery, Checkbox, Combo Box, Drop-Down List, and Date Picker.
To insert a control, just click on it and it will appear wherever your cursor was located. In my example below, I created a table and added two plain-text boxes for first name and last name.
When you create a new control, the default text is automatically entered for that control. You can change this text by clicking on the Design Mode button that is to the right of the control icons. ..
You’ll see some blue placeholders appear on the left and right of any controls you have added to your document. Select the text and change it to whatever you like. Click on the Design Mode button again to exit the mode.
To change the color of a control, click on the color swatch in the Properties window and then select a new color. To change the text or font size of a control, click on the Size button and then select a new size. ..
This control allows you to change the color, style, and text of a control.
The main difference between a plain-text control and a rich text control is that the rich text control allows you to change the font and color settings for each word individually. ..
Next, I added a drop down list control to my form. You’ll see it says Choose an item and that’s it. In order to add items to the list, you have to click on Properties.
The Display Name and Value can be different, but it’s usually best to keep them the same. If you want to use Word macros, you can change the value.
Once you have added all your choices, click OK and you’ll now be able to select the options from the drop-down list.
The dropdown list control is a control that allows the user to choose from one of several choices in a list. The combo box control is a control that allows the user to type in their own value.
The date picker control works just like any other date picker you may have used on airline booking sites, etc. When you click on it, a calendar appears and you can simply click on the date to select it. ..
You can choose a date range, or pick a specific day or week.
You can choose a different format to display the date and choose a different calendar type. The picture control is another nice option that will allow users to insert a picture easily.
When users click on the image, a dialog will appear where they can choose a picture from their computer, from Bing image search or from OneDrive. They also have options for Facebook and Flickr.
We’ve added a few checkboxes to our document. When you add a checkbox and try to type text into it, it will tell you that the selection is locked. I believe this is by design. You have to click next to the checkbox and then type in your text.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out my post on how to use AutoText and Quick Parts in Word. In my example, I added some quotes to a custom AutoText and then linked the control to it via the Properties dialog. ..
To protect your document, click on the Restrict Editing button on the Developer tab. This will prevent users from filling out any of the form fields and will only allow them to submit the document as is. ..
When you fill in a form, make sure to check the Allow only this type of editing in the document box. This will keep other people from editing your document. ..
Yes, start enforcing protection and then enter a password if you like. Now only the form fields will be editable and everything else locked/protected. The user can easily use the TAB key to move between the different form fields. ..
Word is a decent tool for making forms, but it’s not the best one. If you have any questions, feel free to comment.
