Can form fields auto update (Word 2003)

Topic

New Reply

I want Word to automatically populate several form fields that are repeated. I can only get this to work with numbers but not with text. Surely there must be a way since there would be so many opportunities to fill in some text once and then have it automatically fill in the same information in a variety of places. Ideas? Please check the simple form I’ve attached.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Welcome to Woody’s Lounge.

What would you like to be filled in automatically and where?

Reply | Quote

In the first four fields I’ve labeled the fields “Enter TeamA Team Name” etc. I was hoping that by putting the team name in those fields the fields below would populate with the text I entered. Try it with numbers and it works beautifully, but I can’t get it to work when I enter text.
I’ve downloaded the Word file from Macropod but am still not able to get it to work.

Reply | Quote

You can use Cross References to refer to the team names. In the attached (zipped) document, I replaced the team names by cross references to the bookmarks Text1 through Text4 that correspond to the form fields. Since the form fields have “Calculate on Exit” ticked, changing a team name will automatically update the cross references.

Reply | Quote

Fantastic!! Works like a charm. Since I have many I need to do I’ve added a crossreference button to my tool bar and I can fly at it. Thanks a million!

Reply | Quote

What you get via the cross-reference toolbar button is essentially the same as the first of the solutions I posted (ie {text1}), but expressed as {REF text1}. The REF prefix makes no difference to the result.

What the cross-reference toolbar button doesn’t give you, though, is the ability to suppress the output while you’re waiting for a valid input, which is what my second solution does.

What might have stopped you is that you can’t simply type the field braces as they’re presented in the Lounge – you have to enter them in pairs via Ctrl-F9, then type the other text between them. For my second solution, there are two pairs of field braces nested inside a third.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the help. I’ve attached a sample working document. Try if you like. I’m real pleased!

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the help. I’ve attached a sample working document. Try if you like. I’m real pleased!

Reply | Quote

What you get via the cross-reference toolbar button is essentially the same as the first of the solutions I posted (ie {text1}), but expressed as {REF text1}. The REF prefix makes no difference to the result.

What the cross-reference toolbar button doesn’t give you, though, is the ability to suppress the output while you’re waiting for a valid input, which is what my second solution does.

What might have stopped you is that you can’t simply type the field braces as they’re presented in the Lounge – you have to enter them in pairs via Ctrl-F9, then type the other text between them. For my second solution, there are two pairs of field braces nested inside a third.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote

Fantastic!! Works like a charm. Since I have many I need to do I’ve added a crossreference button to my tool bar and I can fly at it. Thanks a million!

Reply | Quote

You can use Cross References to refer to the team names. In the attached (zipped) document, I replaced the team names by cross references to the bookmarks Text1 through Text4 that correspond to the form fields. Since the form fields have “Calculate on Exit” ticked, changing a team name will automatically update the cross references.

Reply | Quote

In the first four fields I’ve labeled the fields “Enter TeamA Team Name” etc. I was hoping that by putting the team name in those fields the fields below would populate with the text I entered. Try it with numbers and it works beautifully, but I can’t get it to work when I enter text.
I’ve downloaded the Word file from Macropod but am still not able to get it to work.

Reply | Quote

Welcome to Woody’s Lounge.

What would you like to be filled in automatically and where?

Reply | Quote

You should be able to get the team names into the table cells by changing the fields in those cells from:
{ FORMTEXT { =b1 }} etc
to:
{text1} etc

Of course, that can look a bit ugly while you’re waiting for the Team names to be input, so you could suppress the output in that case with:
{IF{text1}= “Enter TeamA Team Name” “”{text1}} etc

Unlike Excel, cell referencing in Word only works with strictly numeric values. See post 365442 for more details on this.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote

I’ve downloaded your document but still cannot get one Word form field to update from another if there is text in the source field. I’ve tried all the following in the destination field (all with the destination field being a calculation) =”text1″ ; =[text1], =[“text1”] etc.. Still cannot get the destination field(s) to update when I input into the source fields.

Reply | Quote

I’ve downloaded your document but still cannot get one Word form field to update from another if there is text in the source field. I’ve tried all the following in the destination field (all with the destination field being a calculation) =”text1″ ; =[text1], =[“text1”] etc.. Still cannot get the destination field(s) to update when I input into the source fields.

Reply | Quote

You should be able to get the team names into the table cells by changing the fields in those cells from:
{ FORMTEXT { =b1 }} etc
to:
{text1} etc

Of course, that can look a bit ugly while you’re waiting for the Team names to be input, so you could suppress the output in that case with:
{IF{text1}= “Enter TeamA Team Name” “”{text1}} etc

Unlike Excel, cell referencing in Word only works with strictly numeric values. See post 365442 for more details on this.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote