Thanks for replying, Graham.
The RTF file is a template for reports via Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. One associates the template with an XML file, and then by putting placeholders in the RTF document and linking them to various elements in the XML document. BI then does a sort of mailmerge and creates a report by inserting the XML data where required.
As for preventing anyone overwriting a blank space, we are talking about a printed document, not the soft copy. The work is for agricultural export quarantine documents, the format of which is agreed and signed in blood by the exporting and importing governments. The worry is that, say, meat or grain that has not been inspected might be photocopied/whatever onto the list of items that have been cleared. I know it's pretty anal, but we're talking government bureaucrats here. Mine is not to reason why...
As for pre-filling the cells with 'shading', I tried that but as it fills rows with data it merely pushes the shaded rows down and onto the next page.
Is there a way I could pre-fill rows which can then be overwritten by data as needed, rather than expanding the table downwards?