Knowledge Base

WD98: Preserving Text When Re-protecting a Form Without Macros

Article ID: 189173

Article Last Modified on 10/4/2002

Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q189173

SYMPTOMS

When a form with information entered in the fields is manually unprotected and re-protected, the information is lost and the form fields are reset to their default settings.

WORKAROUND

Locking text form fields prior to protecting the form prevents the entered text from being lost if the form is unprotected and re-protected. To lock a text field, follow these steps:

Select the field.
Press COMMAND+F11.

NOTE: If Help for WordPerfect Users is selected, COMMAND+F11 does not function.

NOTE: Locking needs to be done before protecting the form. There is no way to tell whether a field is locked or unlocked.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The information in text fields will not be lost when the document is protected again, and the fields will function as usual while the form is being filled out in protected mode.

WARNING: This workaround preserves only text fields. Check boxes and drop-down list selections are still lost when you unprotect and re-protect the field. A calculation field will no longer be updated and will maintain the current value until unlocked, even if it is printed or if a macro is run to update it.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

181109 WD98: Form Fields Lose Text When Protected for Forms

Additional query words: losing deleting delete field formtext tools lost forms

Keywords: kbbug kbfield kbpending KB189173