All....

I am trying to solve a problem at work. We have a Word document (Statement of Work) that is created for projects that contains T&C's that must be signed by a customer before we will build a project. This document is generated by a Sales Engineering group, per project of a specific type (hundreds annually).

The Problem: The document contains T&C's and other specific language generated by our Legal Department as well as language written by the Sr. Engineers. This is information that we do not want changed by anyone (including our Sales Engineers). In addition, there are variable sections of this document which are project specific, including a section called "Deliverables" which varies in size and is in a numeric, outline format. These sections must be written on a per project basis.

What we want is a form type layout that has fields and then a section that is more like a template for all of the variable information, in a single document.

Solution A: I created a form to serve as a boilerplate with all of the locked down information and the required fields in Adobe LiveCycle. Then I created a Word template for the variable information that allows for the numeric outline, etc. The idea was that once the two documents were completed, the user would print both to PDF and then combine the two into a single document (the Word doc being “Attachment B” to the original form.

This solution works great, however, management feels that it is too complicated and needs to be simplified. As far as I can tell, the required functionality is not going to be available in a LiveCycle form, so I am back to trying to do this in Word.

So, the question: Is there a way to have a word document function like a form on X pages and then be more like a straight word document on Y Pages? For example: Pages 1 – 6 would be strictly FORM. Starting on Page 7 (Attachment B), the end user could literally type as many pages as required in an outline format, etc.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, etc would be greatly appreciated. I am usually very good at solving these types of problems, but I am truly stumped and have not been able to get Word to work in this manner. Either it cant be done in a single document or I am missing something (or some things).

Thank you in advanced…

Chris L.
Sr. Design Engineer