Lost form fields after merge

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Darryl Kerkeslager - 09 Mar 2005 18:17 GMT

TextInput type FormFields are lost when doing a Mail Merge, but the
fix that MS has proposed is inadequate for my purposes.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=286841

The Word fill-in forms that I have been given - and cannot substantially
alter - have blank Word *form* fields - textInput, checkbox, and combobox
form fields. Some of these, I want to merge data into, some of these I
don't, but instead want them to be left blank for the user to fill in
manually *after the merge*. Although checkboxes and comboboxes remain after
the merge, any unfilled textInput boxes are not present in the newly created
document. The user cannot then tab between the unfilled Word form fields
and fill them in.

Microsoft's workaround above is about the same as mine - I put the text
"<ff>" in the original doc, and then use vba to replace that with a form
field (from Access):

.Application.Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Do While .Application.Selection.Find.Execute _
(FindText:="<ff>", Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
.ActiveDocument.FormFields.Add _
Range:=.Application.Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldFormTextInput
Loop

My main problem is that so far, I can only add a field - I cannot then
re-create the formatting that the original designers of the Word Document
intended
(underline, maximum width 2, uppercase, etc).

Darryl Kerkeslager

Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Knowledge is power.
See www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

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Peter Jamieson - 10 Mar 2005 15:44 GMT

I can only suggest that you add a little bit more info to each <ff> tag to
store the formatting information you want and use it after the merge to
restore the formatting and so on.

e.g. if you want underline, set the field up as <ff_underline>, parse the
info. in your macro and apply the necessary properties. In this case, you
might be slightly better off inserting the fields you want by hand, then
using another bit of VBA to examine their properties and generate a "field
name" that encodes the information you want to transfer.

Peter Jamieson

> TextInput type FormFields are lost when doing a Mail Merge, but the
> fix that MS has proposed is inadequate for my purposes.
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> Knowledge is power.
> See www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

Reply to this Message

Darryl Kerkeslager - 10 Mar 2005 23:37 GMT

>I can only suggest that you add a little bit more info to each <ff> tag to
>store the formatting information you want and use it after the merge to
>restore the formatting and so on.
>
> e.g. if you want underline, set the field up as <ff_underline>, parse the
> info. in your macro and apply the necessary properties.

Drat! I had hoped for a more elegant solution, but it seems that this
problem has no elegant solution, only work-araounds.

> In this case, you might be slightly better off inserting the fields you
> want by hand, then using another bit of VBA to examine their properties
> and generate a "field name" that encodes the information you want to
> transfer.

How do I put the information back in? For instance, I use this to add the
form field:

.ActiveDocument.FormFields.Add _
Range:=.Application.Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldFormTextInput

How do I then say, "and make that form field two characters wide"?

Signature

Darryl Kerkeslager

Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Knowledge is power.
See www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

Reply to this Message

Peter Jamieson - 11 Mar 2005 01:34 GMT

> How do I then say, "and make that form field two characters wide"?

Something like:

Dim oFormField as FormField
Set oFormField =
ActiveDocument.FormFields.Add(Range:=Application.Selection.Range, _
Type:=wdFieldFormTextInput)
With oFormField.TextInput
.Width = 2
End With

(You may find some of the relevant properties in the oFormField, and some in
oFormField.TextInput).

> Drat! I had hoped for a more elegant solution, but it seems that this
> problem has no elegant solution, only work-araounds.

Yes, there seem to have been many lost design opportunities in this area.

Peter Jamieson

>>I can only suggest that you add a little bit more info to each <ff> tag to
>>store the formatting information you want and use it after the merge to
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> How do I then say, "and make that form field two characters wide"?

Reply to this Message

Darryl Kerkeslager - 11 Mar 2005 01:42 GMT

>> How do I then say, "and make that form field two characters wide"?
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> (You may find some of the relevant properties in the oFormField, and some
> in oFormField.TextInput).

Thank you for the help. I guess I have a lot of looking at the Word Object
Model ahead of me. At least now I know where to start.

Signature

Darryl Kerkeslager

Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Knowledge is power.
See www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

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