Autofill in MS Word Tables

[ArmsDealer]

I have a form that is several pages long in MS Word 97. The form is made up of a series of tables on each page. There are 2 cells, 'Ref No' and 'Title' that appear on every page of the form. Does anyone know how I can set the form up so that I only need to fill in this information on the first page and have the remaining fields update either automatically throughout the rest of the form or at least when the form is printed or saved.

 

[moontho]

This should do the trick.

Highlight the first appearance of the Ref No, then select "Insert" then "Bookmark" and call it Ref and click add.

Then go to where you want it to reappear and select "Insert" then "Reference" the "Cross-Reference". From the dialoge box that appears select "Bookmark" from the "Reference type" pull down menue and double click the "Ref" bookmark name that should appear.

Repeat for any other fields.

 

[ArmsDealer]

Thanks, that works fine when you first put the links in but the problem is that I want to insert all the links before any info is filled in.

Also, even when I do as suggested above, if you then go back and highlight the original text to type something different in, the cross-references update with an error message. It only updates properly if you change part of the text.

Any ideas how I get round this?

 

[moontho]

I see what you mean.

This should work.

Rather than using bookmarks use style names. So highlight the area where Ref is going to be. Give it a unique style name like "Ref". Then where you want the text to reappear select "Insert" then "Field" and select "StyleRef" in the field names and select the style name you created earlier from the list of styles.

Fields normally only update when printed or if you right-click on them and select "Update" or press F9

 

[fumei]

Make the first two locations form fields.
Give them explicit names - which you seem to have already.
ANYWHERE you want the information in the fields to be automatically updated, do this:

Go to that location - it can be in a cell, or not - it does not matter.

Press Ctrl-F9. This creates a blank field with curly brackets. Note you can NO(T just type in the brackets, you MUST use Ctrl-F9.

Now type in the name of the form field.

In the original form fields, make SURE you have Calculate on exit checked.

Now any time information is entered in the form field, ALL the other locations will automatically update to whatever is entered in that form field.

Gerry

 

[ArmsDealer]

In the original form fields, make SURE you have Calculate on exit checked."

How do you do this? I can't work it out.

 

[fumei]

Oh, right click the form field, select Properties. One of the properties is Calculate on exit.

Also, I hope you are aware that for form fiels to work the section they are in MUST be protected for forms. Tools > Protect document , and then select the section with the forms.

Protected sections do NOT allow any user edits at all in that section. If you need to protect just a part of the document, use Continuous Section breaks. Insert > Break > Continuous Section.

Gerry