AutoFormat Within Form Fields

Summary: When entering information into protected form fields, Word doesn't apply the formatting inherent in the AutoFormat As You Type feature. This tip explains how why this is so and discusses one possible workaround. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Mary was having a problem getting AutoFormat As You Type to convert "straight quotes" to "smart quotes" within the fields of protected forms.

Unfortunately, this seems to be one of the vagaries of working with Word. There is quite a number of Word's features that won't work in the fields of a protected form; AutoFormat As You Type is just one of them. Why the Word designers set things up this way is one of the great mysteries of the universe.

The only possible workaround would be to write some sort of OnExit macro that is triggered when the form's user moves from one form field to another. The macro could examine the contents of the form field and change any straight quotes to curly quotes. This, of course, is not an ideal workaround, since you might not want all quotes converted, which means the parsing rules can get rather complex.

Tip #1637 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Great Idea! Word is a tool to get what you really want—printed output. This means you need to make sure that Word works as well as possible with your printer, whether it is sitting on your desk or in a room down the hall.

Check out WordTips: Printing and Printers today!

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AutoFormat Within Form Fields