Hi all... Maybe someone can help me with this because I am about to pull my hair out.

O.K. I have a Word Doc that I need to do for my job. It is an 11 page biographical affidavit that will be e-mailed to all employees. They will open it up on their computers and fill in all the questions. The problem is this.. I type a question such as "Affiant’s Full Name (Initials Not Acceptable)." and after that I held down my Ctrl key and then held down the "minus" key which created a line onto which they could type their name. Well, when they click onto the line and start to type, the line disappears. There are over 75 places where these questions are asked and I have placed these "lines". Is there any way I can easily fix this or do I have to do it all over again? If I do have to do it over again, please everyone out there... give me your best advice. I will owe you all a HUGE favor!! I have attached a portion of the doc so you can see what I am talking about.

Thanks, :)

Paul

I hate to tell you this but that's the normal procedure for anyone who will be typing onto those lines. There is no way for a line to be there and have someone type "over" the line so that both the text and the line remain (the way you are doing it anyway).

I guess you could make it more of a form with Labels and Text Boxes if you were comfortable doing that. Try this: http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22

Check this too where you can use the paragraph line as your underline: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/LinesInForms.htm

Dear NeedKarma:

Thanks for your quick response but I had already checked out those 2 websites you sent me and they were no great help. I can't tell you how many times in my life I have received these type of forms via e-mail, opened them up and filled them out without the line moving or disappearing. I just wish I could contact one of the people who made them. Oh well, back to work... :) Thanks again.

Paul

Paul,

Whenever I do forms in Word, I use tables or inline textboxes where the user can fill in data. You can set a bottom border for the table cell or the text box so, even when they type there will be a line below.

But as Need pointed out, using Underscores won't work since when they type the data, it will either overwrite underscores or insert new characters.

To ScottGem and all others who have tried to help.

I really am not a dummy when it comes to computers. I can take them apart and put them back together blindfolded. I am A+ certified and also have my Cisco Certification but when it comes to certain software programs such as Microsoft Word I am o.k. with the basic functions but when you start talking about forms and cells and tables I am lost. I went to the links you gave me by Suzanne Barnhill and Dave Rado and I followed step by step but it still isn't doing what I need it to do. What I need it to do seems so simple but I guess it's not. All I want to do is to be able to type on a line without it moving and then tab to the next line and type on it etc. That’s it. I'm not asking for the code to break into the Federal Reserve. I have been humbled by this experience... I thought I knew a lot about computers but I guess I should re-think that. Thanks again for all the help you guys have given me. Oh well... back to playing around with Word to see what I can come up with.

Thanks,

Paul

Paul,
The attached file illustrates what I was referring to. I've hidden the gridlines, but what you have is a 4 cell table with the left column being the label and the right column being where the user types in the data. As you can see the right column is "underlined" and as they type the line isn't affected.

ScottGem. It almost worked. I sent you another e-mail asking you if I could send you the doc privatey. If so, please let me know the e-mail address.

Thanks again for all your help.

Paul

Paul,

Just attach it a post here like I did. If you want to keep it from public eyes, then Zip it with a password and send me the password via private message.

What about what I sent didn't work?

Scott<>