Help with RichText Content Control in Word 2013

[bsparacio311]

Hi,

I am trying to make a fillable form in MSWord where users can input answers to questions I am asking.

I am using the "rich text content control" but am having issues.

I want to "restrict editing" to only allow users to "fill in forms". However, I want to "allow formatting" so that users can underline, bold, hyperlink, etc. within the form.

I know that I can set a style for rich text content control boxes, but shouldn't there be a way to allow users to set their own formatting - bold, underline, italics, different font sizes, etc.? I can't seem to figure out any answers to this question on forums anywhere.



Users need to be able to format their own text within this content control.

Thank you in advance!
Brittany

[thetraininglady]

Can you upload a sample file?

[jjfreedman]

The "restrict editing for filling in forms" setting is for legacy form fields. It doesn't play nicely with many content controls, especially the rich text content controls. There's a different arrangement for use with content controls.

The first requirement, if you've used a mixture of content controls and legacy form fields, is to replace all the form fields with their equivalent content controls. (If you've used form fields with entry or exit macros, or other macros that depend on using the values of named form fields, this can make a lot of work, but it's doable.)

To get the equivalent of document protection when there are only content controls and regular text, select the whole document (Ctrl+A), and click Developer > Group > Group. That inserts an invisible content control of type Group around everything. If a user clicks in any text that isn't within one of the content controls, and tries to edit or format that text, nothing will happen except a message in the status bar, "This modification is not allowed because the selection is locked."

There is an advantage to this, besides allowing the content control to function as intended: Unlike forms protection, content control grouping doesn't disable a lot of features such as spell checking.

There are also some disadvantages, in addition to making macro programming somewhat more difficult: You can't tab out of a rich text content control as you can from a form field or from other kinds of content controls. You can't password-protect grouping the way you can with "restrict editing" (although most users won't have any idea how to turn it off). And forms that use content controls cannot be used by Word 2003, even with the Compatibility Pack.