I want Word to automatically populate several form fields that are repeated. I can only get this to work with numbers but not with text. Surely there must be a way since there would be so many opportunities to fill in some text once and then have it automatically fill in the same information in a variety of places. Ideas? Please check the simple form I’ve attached.
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Can form fields auto update (Word 2003)
Home » Forums » AskWoody support » Productivity software by function » MS Word and word processing help » Can form fields auto update (Word 2003)
- This topic has 16 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 9 months ago.
AuthorTopicWSMOSMaster
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 5:28 am #408971Viewing 3 reply threadsAuthorReplies-
WSHansV
AskWoody Lounger -
WSMOSMaster
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:15 am #868118In the first four fields I’ve labeled the fields “Enter TeamA Team Name” etc. I was hoping that by putting the team name in those fields the fields below would populate with the text I entered. Try it with numbers and it works beautifully, but I can’t get it to work when I enter text.
I’ve downloaded the Word file from Macropod but am still not able to get it to work. -
WSHansV
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:41 am #868127You can use Cross References to refer to the team names. In the attached (zipped) document, I replaced the team names by cross references to the bookmarks Text1 through Text4 that correspond to the form fields. Since the form fields have “Calculate on Exit” ticked, changing a team name will automatically update the cross references.
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WSMOSMaster
AskWoody Lounger -
macropod
AskWoody_MVPAugust 24, 2004 at 9:45 pm #868439What you get via the cross-reference toolbar button is essentially the same as the first of the solutions I posted (ie {text1}), but expressed as {REF text1}. The REF prefix makes no difference to the result.
What the cross-reference toolbar button doesn’t give you, though, is the ability to suppress the output while you’re waiting for a valid input, which is what my second solution does.
What might have stopped you is that you can’t simply type the field braces as they’re presented in the Lounge – you have to enter them in pairs via Ctrl-F9, then type the other text between them. For my second solution, there are two pairs of field braces nested inside a third.
Cheers
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word] -
WSMOSMaster
AskWoody Lounger -
WSMOSMaster
AskWoody Lounger -
macropod
AskWoody_MVPAugust 24, 2004 at 9:45 pm #868440What you get via the cross-reference toolbar button is essentially the same as the first of the solutions I posted (ie {text1}), but expressed as {REF text1}. The REF prefix makes no difference to the result.
What the cross-reference toolbar button doesn’t give you, though, is the ability to suppress the output while you’re waiting for a valid input, which is what my second solution does.
What might have stopped you is that you can’t simply type the field braces as they’re presented in the Lounge – you have to enter them in pairs via Ctrl-F9, then type the other text between them. For my second solution, there are two pairs of field braces nested inside a third.
Cheers
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]
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WSMOSMaster
AskWoody Lounger
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WSHansV
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:41 am #868128You can use Cross References to refer to the team names. In the attached (zipped) document, I replaced the team names by cross references to the bookmarks Text1 through Text4 that correspond to the form fields. Since the form fields have “Calculate on Exit” ticked, changing a team name will automatically update the cross references.
WSMOSMaster
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:15 am #868119In the first four fields I’ve labeled the fields “Enter TeamA Team Name” etc. I was hoping that by putting the team name in those fields the fields below would populate with the text I entered. Try it with numbers and it works beautifully, but I can’t get it to work when I enter text.
I’ve downloaded the Word file from Macropod but am still not able to get it to work.WSHansV
AskWoody Loungermacropod
AskWoody_MVPAugust 24, 2004 at 6:33 am #868088You should be able to get the team names into the table cells by changing the fields in those cells from:
{ FORMTEXT { =b1 }} etc
to:
{text1} etcOf course, that can look a bit ugly while you’re waiting for the Team names to be input, so you could suppress the output in that case with:
{IF{text1}= “Enter TeamA Team Name” “”{text1}} etcUnlike Excel, cell referencing in Word only works with strictly numeric values. See post 365442 for more details on this.
Cheers
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]-
WSMOSMaster
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:31 am #868125I’ve downloaded your document but still cannot get one Word form field to update from another if there is text in the source field. I’ve tried all the following in the destination field (all with the destination field being a calculation) =”text1″ ; =[text1], =[“text1”] etc.. Still cannot get the destination field(s) to update when I input into the source fields.
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WSMOSMaster
AskWoody LoungerAugust 24, 2004 at 10:31 am #868126I’ve downloaded your document but still cannot get one Word form field to update from another if there is text in the source field. I’ve tried all the following in the destination field (all with the destination field being a calculation) =”text1″ ; =[text1], =[“text1”] etc.. Still cannot get the destination field(s) to update when I input into the source fields.
macropod
AskWoody_MVPAugust 24, 2004 at 6:33 am #868089You should be able to get the team names into the table cells by changing the fields in those cells from:
{ FORMTEXT { =b1 }} etc
to:
{text1} etcOf course, that can look a bit ugly while you’re waiting for the Team names to be input, so you could suppress the output in that case with:
{IF{text1}= “Enter TeamA Team Name” “”{text1}} etcUnlike Excel, cell referencing in Word only works with strictly numeric values. See post 365442 for more details on this.
Cheers
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]Viewing 3 reply threads -

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