Creating a Form in Microsoft Word

Problem: You don't know how to create a user-fillable form in Microsoft Word for Mac OS X.

Solution: Just follow the instructions below...

1) Create a new document and open the Forms toolbar by

View > Toolbars > Forms

Figure 1. Forms toolbar

2) Layout your form by adding a combination of text and various form fields. The available form fields are text, checkbox, and pulldown.

To add a text form field to the form, left-click where you want the field to appear in the form and then click on the first item (i.e., ab|) in the Forms toolbar. Word will insert a text field at that location within the form.

Figure 2. Text form field

Similarly, you can add a checkbox to the form by selecting an insertion point and clicking on the second item in the toolbar.

Figure 3. Checkboxes

The third toolbar item adds a pulldown form field to the form. To enter the menu items, double click on the field and add the items using the dialog box.

Figure 4. Pulldown form field

3) After laying out the form, click on the right-most toolbar item (i.e., the lock icon). This will toggle between Protect and Unprotect Document modes. When the lock icon is highlighted, the document is protected, which prevents anyone from editing the document. In this mode, the user will be able to fill out the form but not edit it. You can optionally password-protect the form by selecting

Tools > Protect Document...

and select the "Forms:" option and set a password. To further edit the form, switch to Unprotect Document mode by clicking on the lock icon.