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If user clicks on the edge of legacy text field, the cursor jumps to the next field

I created a simple table in Word 2013 and in many cells I've have placed legacy text form fields.

After creating the form I restricted it by clicking on Developer, Restrict Editing, and restrict editing to Filling in forms.

Save, close, re-open file.

When I go to test the form, I find that when I click in a cell, the focus is jumping to the next cell/field in the table before I've had a chance to enter anything.

I think this is happening because the "grey box" representing the form field doesn't fill up the entire cell, so if the user randomly clicks to the right of it, Word must interpret that as data entered and jumps to the next cell.  It's quite annoying.f

Is there a way to work around this?

Thanks, Cindy

Answer
Answer

If you inadvertently click outside a form field in a protected document, the insertion point moves to the next field; that is true. Perhaps your users will find it easier to Tab between the fields? The downside of tabbing is that you can't control the tab order without using a macro (see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/SetTabOrder.htm).

Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
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Question Info

Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 186 Applies to: