Apologies if this has been answered somewhere, been trying to solve for a couple of hours now.

I am trying to create a template and then use it as a fillable form. I have been following https://support.office.com/en-us/art...b-ac44937e3a9f and https://support.office.com/en-US/Art...2-1191bce57deb and several other sites in between.

When I create the template, from a blank document, I can see and edit from the controls. That is - I have checkboxes that I can toggle on and off, and areas with the "Click here to enter text" where if I click it's a box I can enter text in. My date inserts and drop down boxes operate as expected. Up until the point where I save it and re-open (for editing of the template or as a document).

I cannot however use this template and have controls I can edit - the checkboxes are just squares and the "Click here to enter text" boxes are just the words in text on the page. I can either edit everything as if it were just a typed page, or if I "Restrict Editing" on the template the whole page is locked and I cannot change anything.

I am unsure what I am doing wrong and have not found any sites that address this problem (but a couple of posts with the same problem without a solution).

What I want is a document where all the headings and questions are static and I can create a new one and fill in the details. I assumed templates is the way to do this, but there could be a better way?

Any advice or pointers to instructions that are step by step through a document through to be able to use it would be appreciated. I try to use a template by going to New -> My Templates and double click the template I want to use.

Thanks