Content creation: Microsoft® Word text form fields

Microsoft® Word - Text form fields

Why use text form fields?

An activity that includes text form fields offers an opportunity for the learner to type text into a box or label.

The text form field can be set to achieve different results such as text only, date, number and entries of a limited size. A single text form field will expand to meet the text input, so the document does not need large blocks of space between questions or unnecessary pages.

The example to the left shows blank labels for the learner to complete the sentence.

How to create text form fields

The following instructions will help you create the simple text form field activity shown above. (A video animation, showing steps 4-6, is available. See the instructions below.)

  1. Open Word and start with a new blank document.
  2. Open the Forms toolbar. Go to View Toolbars Forms.
  3. Type the following text: (Insert Symbol for the accent symbol)

Les nationalitiés

Fill in the gaps

Jeanne d’Arc était.

  1. Press the spacebar once after the word ‘était’ and then click on the Text Form
    Field icon on the Forms toolbar. This will place a grey box in the space. Click
    on the grey box to select it and set any formatting requirements such as font, font size or colour using the Formatting toolbar in Word.
  2. Add the following text to this activity and repeat the procedure:

William Shakespeare était

Marilyn Monroe était

Tom Jones était

William Wallace était.

  1. To activate and check the text form fields select the Protect Form () icon from the Forms toolbar. Click back onto the Protect Form icon.
  2. To fully protect the document so that it avoids any accidental amendment by a user go to Tools Protect Document. Type in a password to allow amendment.
  3. Save the document as french to your E-Guides USB memory stick.

Need help? Look for the video tutorial showing steps 4-6 on the E-Guides USB memory stick. Go to Content creationAnimations, then click on the wordtext.swf file.

Now that you have tried a text form field activity why not create another one?

You might want to look at the completed example by opening the file The back of a computer which you can find on SDELC ( Module 7.0: E-learning content – sourcing and creatingInformation about using Microsoft WordText form fields The back of the computer. Follow the instructions to create the more advanced text form field activity.

Suggestions for use

The following are examples of learning materials produced using Microsoft® Word text form fields. This type of activity can be created in the same way using photographs or diagrams to help textual understanding. The Thomas Danby example shows the text turn blue once entered into the text form field.

Further resouces:

  • Floral Foam Designs:
  • Name the food:


E-Guides training programme 2007 - 2008