Create web form (Word 2003)

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(Edited by jscher2000 on 30-May-08 11:28. Replaced unclickable link with a handier one.)

I want to do exactly what is talked about in this post: Re: Attaching doc to Email using hyperlink (Word 2000/SR1) but what happens if my user is not using Outlook? Is there something more generic I can use in my Submit button? I just want them to be able to click on the button and it will attach the document (with their input on it) to an email and send it to the recipient I designate in the code.

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That thread takes advantage of the automation features of Microsoft Office. As far as I know, there is no generic way to specify from a web page that the user’s default email program — whatever it is — should create a new message and attach a file. Windows provides the MAPI interface, so a locally installed program could be written to do something like that, but given the security restrictions on web pages, those capabilities are inaccessible.

Can you describe your requirements in a bit more detail? Is it an option to use an email function on the web server to build the message, rather than sending it from the user’s email program?

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We have an application form for our students to join our program. Currently it is in paper form. We would like to allow them to fill it out electronically. I was looking for a way that it could be submitted by the user and be emailed back to us in a way that would make it look like the paper form, only with the fields filled in. I thought maybe Word might be my answer. In the past, when I have put an online form up, I can get the information via email, but it is just the field input in a column. I wanted to make it look like it would if they filled it out on paper so that my secretary doesn’t have to write in their emailed answers. Hope this makes sense.

Jodi

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Does your secretary use Outlook? It is possible to write automation macros that run from inside Outlook. For example, one could write a macro that reads the data in an email message and populates it into a Word document. There probably have been macros like that posted on the Outlook or VB/VBA boards in the past, but I haven’t tried searching for one.

Alternately, you could create a template in Word with the same code, and have it start by displaying a dialog box that your secretary could paste the raw data into. The macro then would parse that data and insert it into the form.

One advantage of these methods is that you do not have to worry about the security risks of accepting Word documents.

If you are inclined to go down this path, you could mark up your current Word form with bookmarks so the macro will know where the insert the data. If the form uses controls (e.g., text boxes or drop-downs), that will work, too, but it’s a little harder.

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I would do this using Adobe Acrobat to create an electronic form. You can add a button within the form which submits the form responses in an email.

Acrobat has the advantage of not requiring commercial software (Word) on the computer where the form is completed.

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