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| Thread ID: 96126 | 2008-12-30 00:54:00 | MS Word Form Fields Design Question | Perry (4966) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 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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