Repeating section, content controls, and restrict editing not working as expected in Office 2013

Brian,

I can confirm that Repeating Section CCs and locked forms appears to be broke bad :-(.

My first thought was using a different protection method might provide the simple solution.  I'm not saying that I am right, but in my opinion,  "Filling in forms" is geared more for documents containing legacy formfields.  For forms using content controls, I prefer "No Changes (Read Only" and then setting editable regions.  There is more on this here:  http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/content_control_fillin_form.html

  see the section: Restrict Editing — No changes (Read only) with Exceptions

Well, that didn't work well either unfortunately. 

a. It seems that if you simply make the CCs within the repeating section CC editable, then you can edit them, but you can't add a repeating section.

b. Next I tried making the whole RS CC editable.  That offered some improvement.  I was able to insert a new repeating section "Before" the existing section, but not after the last section (i.e., the blue + at the end of the RS is dead.  Additionally, the fixed text in the RS was also editable.

c.  Next, I set the RS content control properties "Content cannot be edited to true.  Again, some improvement.  I still couldn't add a new item after the last item, but the fixed content in the RS CC was locked down.

d. Next, I included the paragraph following the RS CC table in the editable region.  Now I could add repeating sections using the blue +.  The drawback is the user could type text in that empty paragraph following the table.

e. Replaces the empty paragraph with a plain text CC, made the placeholder text a single space and then set lock contents to true.

This has resulted in the RS working as I would expect.  The only problem with this solution (other than it be convoluted) is that there is no password protection on the "Lock contents" of either the RS CC or the empty plain text CC.

Best I could do.  I'm surprised I've not seen this before and that there is no howl rising from other corporate users like yourself.

I put a document with a working example in a public dropbox.  Hope this helps:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64545773/Locked%20RS%20CC.dotm

Brian,

I did initiate a discussion as a result of your post.  If you want to read it or participate see:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/content-controls-another-flaw-exposed-and-general/9fd67522-04aa-4bb1-bd02-22034b1d8767

I hope I am proved wrong, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a fix from MS.  There are things broken with CCs all the way back to Word 2007.  They just don't seem to care.

Good luck.

Brian,

I did initiate a discussion as a result of your post.  If you want to read it or participate see:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/content-controls-another-flaw-exposed-and-general/9fd67522-04aa-4bb1-bd02-22034b1d8767

I hope I am proved wrong, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a fix from MS.  There are things broken with CCs all the way back to Word 2007.  They just don't seem to care.

Good luck.

Which leaves us in a situation where there are no fully functional form controls in Word. That is those that can be used to create forms with automation and basic protection from the user entering text where they should not.

The old Forms and ActiveX controls both fail in several ways in Word 2013 forcing us to move all our forms to content controls, and now they don't work.

Regards

Gordon

Gordon,

Pitiful, yet typical, MS support but I don' think it is quite as dire as being left in a position where we can't create a form an protect it from user tamper or error.  As best I can tell, all the other content controls will work in forms (protected with No Changes (Read Only) and setting editable regions, however the repeating section CC (which something like it doesn't exist with formfields or ActiveX) works, but doesn't work when used in a protected form.

To me it is just another example of Microsoft shortsightedness.  They throw out sometime with enormous potential but deliver it half-baked and run off to create more half-baked bells and whistles.

Please consider commenting in the discussion I initiated. It enough, and I'm thinking a million or more people complain then maybe they may come back and finally fix content controls.

Greg,

I'm hoping being a former blue badge at Microsoft (ironically, a solution evangelist for the Office stack) and bringing it up with former colleagues might give me a bit more push getting at least some attention. Not holding my breath, tho' </grin>. The real issue here is the continued lack of awareness on the part of the product teams regarding the actualities of using Office products for anything but personal productivity--integrating them into real corporate workflows is a haphazard exercise at best. This is maddening because all of the basic components required are there, they are just poorly thought out or incomplete or full of bugs. As a solution architect charged with setting technical direction and pattern development for my company's knowledge systems, it's becoming increasingly difficult to recommend the Office Suite at any point in the workflow save as a possible output format amongst many. Frankly, I'm very tempted to redo our InfoPath forms as web forms that emit PDF as it'd be less of a hassle. The only reason I'm sticking with Word at this point is it would make training and disconnected scenarios simpler. That and perhaps a bit of misplaced loyalty.

Thanks again for your help!

Brian

Brian,

Sounds like you are much more in the loop than I am or ever wish to be :-).  Your description of the madness is spot on.  As you will apparently be working with content controls quite a bit going forward, you might find my Content Controls Tools Add-In interesting if not useful:

http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/content_control_tools.html

I'll concede that while functional, it is probably very crude standing against the type of processes that you are accustomed to.

Again, good luck.

Thought you'd like to see my response from Microsoft Support:

I talked this over with a colleague, and we found that Repeating Sections  is meant to be used in a slightly different way. I have attached a sample file that demonstrates this.

If you feel strongly about the functionality we can submit a design change request, but they may come back and point to an example that is similar to the one attached.

The example they showed was a single row with multiple columns wrapped in a repeating section control. I can confirm that it does work during that single use case. However, as they are promoting Word based templates using content controls to replace InfoPath, this is obviously a non-starter--many if not most complex forms require the ability to repeat ragged tables containing multiple controls just as could be done with InfoPath. It also stretches credence more than a bit that the product team would release a control that would allow you to wrap pretty much anything but only work under a single circumstance--the internal programming specifications at Microsoft require that the control actively prevent misuse or throw an error when it encountered conditions where it could not be used. Hmm...guess they could have changed in the years since I was there but I doubt the change would be that draconian.

At this point, I'm following other routes and taking advantage of relationships with folks on the product team and field techs to get a definitive answer whether this is desired behavior or a bug. I do know that the latter are definitely selling the transition of InfoPath to Word templates. I will keep this post updated with any results I get back but, at this point, I'm likely going to explore a non-Microsoft solution simply because of timing on my project. Even if it is a bug that they plan to fix, I can't wait on it.

Brian,

Thanks for the update.  I've been tinkering around with this more this morning and have discovered something interesting.  I think the issue is related to the placeholder text object and focus.

I recreated your table and protected the document.  Like before I was initially unable to edit any of the controls.  However, I noticed that if I clicked around in the table and around the various CCs, eventually one would get the focus and I could then edit it and access the ones following it.

Next I created a new form and before protecting it, I type in some blank space in the first CC replacing the placeholder text.  After protecting the document, I could then freely type in the first CC and tab to the others and edit them as well.

Next I recreated your form and added the following code in the CC OnEntry event:

If CC.ShowingPlaceholderText Then
   CC.Range.Select
End If

With limited testing, it seems to work perfectly now.  At least as I understand your requirement.  Please give it a try before jumping the MS ship ;-) and let me know what you think.

I find it incredulous that MS would claim that this is by design. 

A related issue is I think it is obvious that in your form, you really don't want the user to be able to change your existing fixed cell text.  I mean you wouldn't want them to change "Item Type" to "Item Color" If MS decides to fix the main issue, I hope they will think a little about what repeating section CCs will be used for and lock down fixed text in the control when it is associated with a protected form.

Hi,

I was having exactly the same issue, but I think I have found the correct solution.  What I did to make it all work as expected was go to the properties of the repeating section control and tick "Contents cannot be edited" inside the Locking section.  Now the form behaves as expected.  You can not edit the text and the form fields are automatically selected and editable.  One final note, you will need to untick the option to be able to edit the text or fields in the RSCC, unlocking the form is not enough.

Hope it helps.

James