How to REALLY use Microsoft Office - Creating Forms in Word
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Lots of people think they understand how to use Microsoft Word. Do you? I break down the basics and importance of Creating Forms in Word in this evenly paced How-To video.
Are your friends and coworkers filling their Word documents with Underscores and calling them "Forms?" MAKE THEM STOP! ;)
Check the full playlist!
I've watched several how-to videos for forms, and this has been the one from which I learned the most - not only for developing forms, but also ancillary information regarding other topics. Thanks so much.
Thanks Scott … 50+ years in IT and learning something everyday. Can't tell you the hours I searched the net including MS site for something presented as simple and straightforward as your video.
This man is a magician. Just dropping mics left and right.
I normally don’t comment on videos, posts in blogs and things of the like, but mister your videos go above a beyond! Please keep it up.
Wow! Blown away!! I have been struggling all day to create a form, and in 15 minutes, had all the answers I needed! Loved it!!
I've watched a ton of Microsoft tutorials & your videos are BY FAR the best. Thank you, THANK YOU for making these videos.
I concur ! this is the Greatest word tutorial I've seen !! for me to actually log in to comment (something I do 2-3 time per year) mean a lot.
HE IS GOOD I THOUGHT HE WAS AN ARY BEFORE
Thank you for this tutorial. I rarely find such an evenly paced, easy to follow, instructional video regarding WORD features.
The easiest to follow tutorial on Word I have ever seen by a mile. Thank you
I have just watched a couple of your videos and must say these are the best! The way you explain and show exactly how to complete a function is wonderful. Thank you I look forward to see more.
AWESOME JOB.......starting to design fillable forms for my husbands HVAC service techs so THIS was extremely helpful and you moved along quick enough through the instructional and then reviewed the basic tools at the end. LOVE IT
This is such an excellent video, I normally don't comment at all but I have to say you have done very well; I'm finding myself viewing your video after more than a year from first watching it and I have to say I appreciate it.
This is soooo helpful-- and clear. Appreciate the red circles showing where you are navigating to! Thank you!!!
Very helpful! I have a contract form I use repeatedly for a client - the other party changes with each contract. It would save so much time to enter the name of the other party in one place on the contract and have it populate in directed fields throughout the rest of the document. All I have found so far is bookmarks, but the scripting is beyond my scope of knowledge and the time I have currently to learn it. Thank you for the extra info on forms here!
Wait, how come I can't give this three thumbs up? I came for automation and found help for nagging things that I didn't think to ask for all in the same place! Thank you!
Thank you for making this video. It is not only very interesting, but also very helpful the way you teach it. Thanks again.
Wow! you are the Yoda of Word! I can now make a proper form and feel proud to hand it out to staff. Thank you!
Hello Scott. Thanks. Your video has been so useful for me. Anyway, I have had to watch it several times, pausing and repeating for better understanding. i mean there are many people like me that use MS Word at the half of its efficiency because sometimes we don't need more but, from time to time, the idea is to improve the "how to do" the things. I'd like to suggest you to go a little slow and, maybe, to explain a little more how you go so fast between fields, for example: At the end of the video, you fill the table with checking boxes really fast. I know it is easy but, let us know how to do those small details that really help to save time. Thanks.
Thanks...it's fun watching and learning from someone that knows how to use Word. Greatly appreciated.
This was exactly what I needed. The pace was good. I will proceed to creating a form for use in my office immediately. I appreciate the advice you give on making your document attractive and well organized. Whether I'm developing a spreadsheet or a form, I want it to be attractive and easy to scan -- visually inviting.
The best word tutorial I have ever watched. Can you please explain making forms more advanced?
5 years later and its still relevant. Thanks
Great series of videos - I've been using Word since WinWord 2, and I thought I knew most of the options etc., but somehow I either missed (or forgot) that you could set the tab leader character to eg underscores
In return, one of my favourite tips, is to select some text, hold down Shift, then repeatedly hit F3 - this cycles the formatting of the selected text between Initial Caps, All Caps, and All lowercase and back again
Another couple of odds & ends that most don't know are "the Spike", and "=Rand()"
Microsoft should pay you to produce a suite of these tutorials. Then we can all be wizards and make life easier
Thank you for the details. There are so many tips that I will now incorporate to everyday word use. I appreciate this, and looking forward to checking out your other videos!
Your tutorial was very helpful and easy to understand. Can you tell me how I can set it up for the user to hit enter instead of clicking into every field to maneuver through the form and if there is repetitive information can you simply enter the data in a field and have it auto populate the data into all the fields with that same title?
Thank you for your very helpful tutorial.
Started working where I need to update SOP forms and this is so much easier than working through PDF eForms.
Thank you Scott - awesome tutorial, easy to follow and a lot of good pointers. I look forward to watching more that you have to share.
Great video. I would love to have a video on using variables in Word (i.e., entering data into a form and then using that data within the text such as using the entered name several places in the overall text of a letter).
I have this same issue. I want to have them input a date or a name and have that information be used throughout the form; is there a way to do that like Adobe? BTW, great video, your "office skills" are awesome.
Hey Scott,
Your videos are really helpful for me in graduating to become a reasonably good user of MS word. Thanks.
Great series, Scott. I would love a deeper look at forms. Thanks for all your educational stuff. I have been a follower for years.
Interesting, helpful and well presented tutorial. Thanks very much. I shall look out for others that you have taken the trouble to prepare.
BRO, you are good! Love your instruction, your videos are well orchestrated especially with the additional visual aids you improvise on! Very good!
Enjoyed your presentation. Thanks for making these available.
I've had some difficulty creating forms that a user can use the tab key to move forward to the next field. Do you have a video that addresses this problem?
I've watched your video several of times and it is very good. I'm having a problem with trying to merge information into a protected report form that also has user input options. The user input options work great when the document is protected but I can't merge. I can turn off the protection and merge the document, but it would have to be protected again before the user puts in the variable information. Will a macro that automatically protects the document be a possible solution?
Thank you for the wonderful tutorial. Is there a way of filling out a web form and then populating the data into a preformed word template? Example. Suppose I have a content of items. When I click on a particular topic on the content, and click finish/ok, it populates on a word document. If the topics are a new chapter, then it is populated in a new page, with subheading, etc.
I knew this could be done and in another life I created forms in Word but could I remember how??!! Thanks for a great tutorial.
Fantastic video. I am struggling right now to create a form where the information filled in covers up to three lines. I need these lines to show up all the time and for the user to be able to type out the information and it to automatically drop down onto the next line in a continuous flow. Right now it just starts on the top line and then pushes the document downwards when it overflows the first line. Does this make sense. I know its driving me crazy right now!!!!
Well done, very helpful! Like your format of seeing you and screen, makes me feel like an actual classroom setting!
This is very helpful. I am struggling with aligning checkboxes in a table. They do not come out aligned across the columns/rows. Thank you.
I really enjoy your pace and presentation style, any chance you could do something of this type for excel?
Your videos are amazing!! Do you also have videos on Powerpoint and Excel? Thank you!
Hi Scott, I'm trying to create a form where it is easy to tab between the text fields or drop boxes to hurry through a form. Your video is great and got me started but I haven't been able to make it work. Am I missing something? Thanks
This is a great video. I am wanting to upgrade our company forms so they don't have to be printed and filled out manually. I have created the .docx form and restricted editing to "filling in forms" but when I email it to myself I am unable to type into the form or use the drop down options. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your help!
Absolutely brilliant tutorial - I wish all the others were as good as this.
First of all this was great! Did you ever do a more in-depth version of this forms video? I would be very interested in hearing more on forms. Thanks!
Hello Scott, this was a very good tutorial is was easy to follow and explained a lot. I have tried making my first form, I am not sure if I have missed something but if there is a fair few lined in the " Plain text Content Control" box the entire document shifts down the page. Did I do something wrong or is this the nature of the beast?
Cheers
Rod
Love your tutorial videos Scott. Now that the form is made, how do I make a button allowing it to be submitted back to me once it is filled out?
Brilliant. Want more...on creating sequence numbering each time you open a word doc. Eg as in an invoice, order etc.
You've made my evening, sir. Very insightful tutorial.
Scott, great video. I'm trying to make a cover travel form for my faculty to fill out so that I can process their travel. I need them to be able to put not only dates but times too. Also I need them to be able to select more than one option in a drop down box in some places. Can you help me learn how to do this with a more advanced look into word forms? Thanks!
Great video! Is there a way to make the form printable so that the fill-in fields do not print the comment: "Click or tap to enter?" I want to be able to send the form to people who want to print it and fill in by hand as well as those who want to fill it in online.
Scott, I use a lot of forms and would like to know if there is a way to create a form and when text is entered that it auto populates the other forms, example: First Name on main form that it will auto fill the the First Name on the other forms?
Lot of thanks, my dear Scott I learned new things today and I would be very interested in hearing more on forms but I face some problem when I am re open saved file after created form the message show like this "we're sorry. We can't open 123 file because we found a problem with its contents" some thing do in this regard. Thanks
Scott, I have just viewed your 4 videos on "How to REALLY use Microsoft Office: ". I think they are tremendously helpful, easy to follow and very well done! I would like to learn more!! In the videos you make reference to creating a number of additional ones but I cant seem to locate them. Are they available somewhere else?
Hi Scott, thank you I learnt a lot by watching your video. I'm a teacher and so I would like to know whether it's possible to create a quiz using the Developer tools on Microsoft Word where the responses could be corrected automatically, such as MCQs, matching activities, fill in the blank questions, etc. Thank you.
Awesome Video...how did you click through adding all of those check boxes so quickly?
Hi Scott, when you have, what we call "reveal codes" on...what is the little anchor that shows up? I don't know what it is called so not sure what to search for. I see it in old documents we have at work...mostly in forms and I don't know what they are or how to turn them off. If you have already done a video on this, please direct me to it! I am subscribing right now! Your videos are easy to understand and I learn a lot just from this video!
Honestly I was preparing for a test a few days ago, and I was looking for how to do Tab formatting on MUTLIPLE lines and could not for the death of me find any information on it, and I remembered that I saw it in this video, fucking went through my browser history to find this video. It was extremely helpful thank you :D
Thank you for this video.It is helpful for me. How do you customize the template every time you enter for the next page the form is automatically ready to be fill as the first one? Many thanks
I am needing to create a Contract Agreement. How do I get certain fields to have the same content through out the contract. For exampe, Once the Company Name is entered, I would like for it to show up in all of the fields where the company name should be. I have a terrible way with words and trying to explain what I'm needing, so i hope this makes sense.
Could you show how to create a combo/list box in a form that allows multiple selection in a Word Document?
I'd like to see what the average non programmer could do with some simple scripting and automation in these forms. Maybe demystify the macros and vbscript stuff for my mom, for example.
Great tutorial! Many many Blessings to you Scott!!!
hi there, nice video. I'd like to know how to create a form letter in which if I chose a specific person or company, the corresponding full address would come up, instead of having to fill in each field like the street, then the city, state, and so on.
Hi Scott Hanselman, always great to follow your work. I would like a video show casing [how Forms In Word can utilize drop down selections(Filtering)], obviously to allow a person to filter down per drop down field.
So each field is cascading on the result of the next field selection. Ex selecting Car Make, would filter the next box to have Car Models - I mean not everyone is going to spell such things correctly.
Thank you for posting this. I do have some questions that may be pushing the boundaries for MS Word.
1) When I use the TAB key within an entry field, it adds a tab. It does not bring me into the next entry field. Is there a way to force TAB to exit one field and enter the next?
2) I need to be able to continue format numbering, so that hitting ENTER will automatically trigger the next number (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc.). Is this possible?
I do get the feeling that forms are an afterthought for Word. Features such as drag-and-drop objects, intuitive field properties, field types, are not part of the program. Outside of Word, what tool would you recommend?
I share question 1. The input is SO much easier if I don't have to click to get to the next form field. There must be a way to make this happen!
wow this was really helpful and you know your stuff. I think you just taught me a lot in a short time. thanks
You are a good teacher. Thank you
I haven't found a video that shows how to create a box that limits space but lets you type say for lines of text but more?
glad I found your channel, clear, fast and good info.
Wow I learned a lot. Compatibility Mode, Designer Ribbon SHIFT-ENTER Nice! Thanks
Scott, how to you add an expandable text box to a word document? I want the text to wrap and the box to expand down as text is entered. Is this possible in Developer?
Very thorough, clear tutorial. Thanks
Hi. Good video. I just want to know how do you save this document for later use. If I save it as a normal Word document and open it again it is in a totally weird shape and no filling allowed either. Do I save it in 'Macro enabled Word document' format or what? Kindly help. Thanks
Scott, I have a question. I know hoe to get into developer mode and insert a drop down box. Is there a way to have a drop down list, then once you click on a item from the list, it takes you to another a new page/form.
I need an online document that allows me to work from one location. My first page will be an introduction to the 7 levels of emotions in the workplace. So the formatting will all be the same the only difference will be verbiage for each level.
So when I go to the drop down box, I choose level #2, a seperate page will open with the info for that level of emotion or hit drop down and want level #6 it then takes me to that emotion.
I also need the pages to be a fillable form. Which I now know how to do with your video, thank you so much,!
I work in real estate and I am trying to create a form that when you answer a question by checking a box, it will make a list appear. For instance is this in a trust? once the check box is checked then a list of needed documents will appear below. Do you have a video for that. Thanks
Great video! Is there a content control that is equivalent to an option button Active X control? I have some forms where the user has two or more options to choose from but I'd like to make it so they can only pick one. Because it's based on a really old form design I don't want to change it to a drop down list.
Hi Scott! You still out there? When I email my completed form my Customer's aren't able to type spaces. Do you know what step I may have skipped. Very good video. Thanks, Karen
I need help with properties. Is there a way to copy and paste the same information into various drop downs?
Hi! Very good and clearly explained video! I was wondering if the step in 9:58 could be done based on an external sourced table. My idea is to have all the drop down lists together in one Excel file which would make it easier to update if necessary.
Thanks in advance!
Great tuto. Many thanks for the video
Thanks for the video. I was wondering if you could tell me how to make lines that you could write on without them moving? i mean as you showed with ____... but if you type on it, the lines will move... and same happens with the tab that you showed... you can make a line by going to the tab options... but if you start typing on it... the tab will move... when i need to make something, honestly it's to print it... but for printing, even ____ would be enough... but how would i be able to make some "fill in the blank" lines and it won't be affected if i were to email it to others to fill out? thanks
Hi, When you create a fillable text box, how do you make the box resize automatically when the it is being filled. that's when people fill boxes with paragraphs that are some time larger than the box is visible to the eye!
Thank you! This really helped me to create the form I wanted. I'm definitely going to be checking out some of your other videos.
I know how to create the form in Word, but can I set it up so the data is extracted to a spreadsheet or database? Basically I want to create an easy form my students can use to rate an activity, that will allow me to extract their entered ratings and see at a glance what each student entered for each rating.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
thank for this tutorial, I want to learn how I can make a variable that automatically change based on choices that chosen on the drop box
Thanks for the video and the general help - now I am ready to tackle my document project.
Can you link the information that is filled out to a spreadsheet to do analysis?
Excellent video! I learned a lot and look forward to watching some more! I do have one question though. I created a fillable form using your tutorial. It is a technical data form for use with rotating equipment. On several lines, I included three sets of data . For example: Manufacturer, Model Number, and Serial Number. There is plenty of room on one line for all of this information. However, when I go into the form to use it and begin typing in the content control box, the other text and control boxes on that line move with the text! Which is of course the exact kind of thing having an on line form was supposed to help me avoid. I only used plain text control boxes. Can you point me to how I can avoid this problem on my form? Note that I do not want to turn this into a form with a bunch of text boxes if I can avoid it.
that was very cool and usefull, thank you very much
do you know any way to do autofilling text like current date on a template or when i type in a blank it is written somewhere else at the same time?
Hi Scott, I remember you had a part 2 for forms or more advanced but for some reason I can't find it....Do you know where it is or am I looking incorrectly???
Help needed, I created a form in 2010 word. I want the end user to be able to fill in the form, but also be able to bold, change the font, or font size. It is shaded , so it is not allowing it.
Now I know how to get started on a decent looking form for people to fill out.
I'm a teacher trying to create study guides using forms. Is there a way that the data entered into my forms can be automatically entered into an excel spreadsheet so that I can see an overview of every student's submitted work?
This video is perfect for what I needed! Thank so much!
What is the official url for the carnac tool? Looks super useful for demos
For the greyed out part where it says click or tap, can you change what it says?
Great videos! What if I want allow users to insert rows in a table? Is it possible with forms without vbscripts?
I would like a deep dive into forms controls.
good job!
This was very helpful and you have a nice radio voice! Great video! Thank you!