Chapter 10

Creating a Template for an Online Form

MicrosoftWord 2013

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• Save a document as a template• Change paper size• Change page color• Insert a borderless table in a form• Show the DEVELOPER tab• Insert plain text, drop-down list, check box, rich

text, combo box, and date picker content controls

Objectives

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• Edit placeholder text• Change properties of content controls• Insert and format a rectangle shape• Customize a theme• Protect a form• Open a new document based on a template• Fill in a form

Objectives

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Project – Online Form

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• During your life you have probably filled in a form whether it was a federal tax form, a time card, a job application, an order, a deposit slip, a request, or a survey; a form is designed to collect information

• In the past, forms were filled out with a pen or pencil, but with an online form, you use a computer to access, fill in, and then return the form

Working with Forms

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• Today, people are concerned with using resources efficiently

• To minimize paper waste, protect the environment, enhance office efficiency, and improve access to data, many businesses have moved toward a paperless office

• You access online forms on a website, on your company’s intranet, or from your inbox if you receive the form via email

Online Forms

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• A template is a file that contains the definition of the appearance of a Word document, including items such as default font, font size, margin settings, and line spacing; available styles; and even placement of text

• Every document you create is based on a template

Saving a Document as a Template

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Saving a Document as a Template

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• If you create and save an online form as a Word document, users will be required to open that Word document to display the form on the screen

• Next, they will fill in the form• Then, to preserve the content of the original form,

they will have to save the form with a new file name

Saving an Online Form as a Word Document

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• Word may change how the groups and buttons within the groups appear on the ribbon, depending on the computer’s screen resolution

Screen Resolution

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• If you have multiple graphics displaying on the screen and would like them to overlap, you can change their stacking order by using the Bring Forward and Send Backward arrows

• The Bring to Front command on the Bring Forward menu displays the selected object at the top of the stack, and the Send to Back command on the Send Backward menu displays the selected object at the bottom of the stack

• The Bring Forward and Send Backward commands each move the graphic forward or backward one layer in the stack

Changing the Stacking Order with the Bring Forward and Send Backward buttons

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• When you insert a 2 x 1 table, Word automatically calculates the size of two evenly spaced columns

Using a Table to Control Layout

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• When you remove the borders from a table, you no longer can see the individual cells in the table

• To help identify the location of cells, you can display gridlines, which show cell outlines on the screen

Displaying Gridlines in a Table

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• To add data entry fields in a Word form, you insert content controls

Inserting Content Controls

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Content Controls

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• In a form, you enter a label, such as First Name, followed by a content control

• To improve readability, a colon or some other character often separates a label from the content control

Inserting Labels and Content Controls

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• A content control displays placeholder text, which instructs the user how to enter values in the content control

• The default placeholder text for a plain text content control is the instruction, Click here to enter text

• You can change the wording in the placeholder text so that it is more instructional or applicable to the current form

Inserting a Content Control

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Inserting a Plain Text Content Control

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• You can change a variety of properties to customize content controls

• You can assign a tag name to a content control for later identification

• You can also apply a style to the content control to define how text will look as a user types data or makes selections, and you can lock the content control so that a user cannot delete the content control during the data entry process

Changing the Properties of a Content Control

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Changing the Properties of a Content Control• When you apply a style

to a content control, the style is applied to the text the user types during the data entry process

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• To emphasize text in an online document, you can highlight it

• Highlighting alerts a reader to online text’s importance, much like a highlighter pen does on a printed page

Highlighting Text

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Highlighting Text

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• A document theme has 12 predefined colors for various on-screen objects including text, backgrounds, and hyperlinks

• You can change any of the theme colors

Customizing a Theme Color and Saving It with a New Theme Name

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Customizing a Theme Color and Saving It with a New Theme Name

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• When you protect a form, you are allowing users to enter data only in designated areas—specifically, the content controls

• To prevent unwanted changes and edits to the form, it is crucial that you protect a form before making it available to users

• If you enter a password, only a user who knows the password will be able to unprotect the document

Protecting a Form

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• You can restrict users from making certain types of formatting changes to a document or restrict users’ edits to allow only tracked changes, comments, or not allow any edits

• If you restrict a user to be unable to make any edits, you have made the document read only

Restricting Users

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Protecting a Form

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• Include all essential elements, including the form’s title, text and graphics, data entry fields, and data entry instructions

• For each data entry field, determine its field type and/or list of possible values that it can contain

• Save the form as a template, instead of as a Word document, to simplify the data entry process for users of the form

• Create a functional and visually appealing form– Use colors that complement one another– Draw the user’s attention to important sections– Arrange data entry fields in logical groups on the form and in an order that users would expect– Data entry instructions should be succinct and easy to understand– Ensure that users can enter and edit data only in designated areas of the form

• Test the form, ensuring it works as you intended• Publish or distribute the form—post it on social media, the web, or your company’s

intranet, or email it to targeted recipients

Guidelines to Follow When Creating an Online Form

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Filling In a Form and Saving It