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Thread ID: 96126 2008-12-30 00:54:00 MS Word Form Fields Design Question Perry (4966) Press F1
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733573 2009-01-15 09:17:00 Hi, Im trying to understand what the problem is here and it appears to me to be solely relating to the volume of paper printed. When gathering info if you need a question that has 10 possible answers then theres no getting around it - you have to present the possible values for the user to select. You can of course cascade questions where answer A causes you to go to Q5 instead of Q3 etc and certain options no longer become available.

I think how the data is collected is going to steer you in a certain direction. If this is gathered electronically then what is printed doesn't have to correspond to the actual questionnaire document. Data can be stored behind the scenes and reports generated of only the options selected for example rather than all the possible options.

This may be better suited to collection via a browser or database form. If you want to use Word then VBA could be used to do this or even use a form acting like a a wizard so the user selects options and then the next page of questions is displayed for example. This increases the complexity though.
Parry (5696)
733574 2009-01-15 10:07:00 I'm trying to understand what the problem is here and it appears to me to be solely relating to the volume of paper printed. When gathering info if you need a question that has 10 possible answers then there's no getting around it - you have to present the possible values for the user to select.
I've got over that issue in that I've come to terms with
the limitations.

I think how the data is collected is going to steer you in a certain direction. If this is gathered electronically then what is printed doesn't have to correspond to the actual questionnaire document. Data can be stored behind the scenes and reports generated of only the options selected for example rather than all the possible options.A nominally similar answer to the previous paragraph.
Within the limitations I have to deal with, I'm more or
less happy with what I've achieved. So far!

Complexity is something I do have to stay away from.
In significant part because of my own limitations. I'm
doing this as a 'love job' for my lady's workplace. Or
rather, I'm doing it to help my lady and they get the
consequential benefit. :illogical I checked with their IT people
who told me they contract out this sort of (apps) thing.
<sigh> The things we do for love.

Anyway, the recent dilemma is (so far, again!) more
a formatting issue, related to section breaks and their
impact on my ability to stop sections from breaking
across soft page breaks/endings.

Thanks for chipping in, Parry. I did look at VBA and
ran a mile. I've got too old to tackle it, methinks.
Perry (4966)
733575 2009-01-17 03:26:00 Hi Perry, no worries - you seem to have done very well. I think the problem with the page breaks may be that you need to also check the Keep With Next Box in the paragraph options. Give that a go.

hth

Graham
Parry (5696)
733576 2009-01-17 10:14:00 I've checked and I have those options selected.
Still doesn't work. I suspect that because editing
permissions for protected forms make use of
sections for yes/no editing permissions, that
somehow - that interferes with the normal
paragraph break controls.

Can't seem to add images, here, so you'll need
to look at this image stored on photobucket,
to see what I mean.
img.photobucket.com

You'll see the section breaks between 2 & 3
column areas and how the section heading has
drifted back to the bottom of the previous page.
Perry (4966)
733577 2009-01-18 03:35:00 If this was my problem I would be looking at ms-access as the processor of the data/questions.
Then you only need a report to extract the results and print it.
MSWord is not designed for processing data, so it should not be used for it (I know its easy to say from here). Is ms-access available? You can send runtime versions out to end user pc's without the full program (if you have the 2007 version this is FREE).
Having made too many macros in word I am with you on avoiding them. Not easy to upgrade to 2007 either.
zcc (50)
733578 2009-01-18 10:44:00 My glance @ VBA gave me the shivers, despite
kind assistance from folks @ the VBA forums.
I suspect ms-access would be brain damage
territory.

I've given the ms-word form my best shot.
It's not perfect, but some aspects are just
inherent in the software, methinks. (Yeah -
I know, bad workmen and their tools and
all that . . .)

My lady will test it some more, over the
coming days/weeks. Then we'll see if any
of her colleagues are game to give it a go,
after her test run and any further modifications.

I don't want to become some sort of temporary,
acting and unpaid tech help to them, charming
and all as they may be. :thumbs: <sighs>
Perry (4966)
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