Using tables in Word

[PaveFE]

Hi All,

We have a word document that we are trying to emulate a form with. It was built using a table and we want to know if there is a way to make it so that when you type text on one line (row), instead of extending the table when you get to the end, we want it to keep going to the cell below. I dont' want to do a merge because we need to keep the lines visible. I can post it if necessary. Hopefully this makes sense. Or, is there another way?

Thanks,

Vince

 

[BJ9]

Hi Vince,

You can stop the cell from growing with the text by going into Table\AutoFit and clicking on Fixed Column Width.

I'm not sure how you'd automatically have the text continue in the cell below. There may be a way of coding it to do that but I'm not sure how to do it.

BJ

 

[tf1]

I'm not quite understanding how this is emulating a form. On a form, you get a fixed space to write down some information. You may get just half a line or 3 whole lines, but once you have filled the designated space, that's your lot chum!

Word emulates that by using FormFields and assigning the number of characters that the user has available for that field. Once full, that's it.

Is this what you are trying to achieve?


Regards: tf1

 

[fumei]

Cells are cells. Text typed into a cell stays in that cell. There is no straightforward way to tell Word that you want "extra" text to go into a different cell.

Do you have to use a table? You could have lined paragraphs and then text would just flow normally.

Gerry

 

[macropod]

The only practical way I can see of doing this is to use linked text boxes placed over the cells in question.

In this scenario, you'd type into the first text box, not the cell, and any 'overflow' would appear in the second text box.

Linking the boxes is easy:
. Select the first text box
. Click on the Create Text Box Link button in the Text Box toolbar
. Click on the text box you want the text to flow to.

Repeat these steps for each link.

When you're finished, select all the text boxes, choose Format|Text Box, then choose Colors and Lines. Then, set the border colour to 'No Line' and the fill colour to 'No Fill'. That way, you'll see the cell outlines rather than the text boxes.

You can link up to 32 text boxes this way.

Cheers

 

[fumei]

Do-able, but...shudder, I would hate to have to make major edits. Or do anything with code. But then, I am biased...I hate those text boxes.

Gerry