How To: Creating Underlined Input Fields in Microsoft Word

The good news is that this process works for Word 2003, Word 2007 and other word processors, too. OpenOffice Writer and Word Perfect, among many others, can do the same thing.

Although Microsoft doesn't make it to create underlined input fields in Word documents. First, you can't use spaces and underline them — the underline doesn't work that way. You can't underline spaces! Some of the other tricks don't work either.

It's not obvious, but you can do it by using tables!

The good news is that this process works for Word 2003, Word 2007 and other word processors, too. OpenOffice Writer and Word Perfect, among many others, can do the same thing.

First, we need to create the input format in the form of a table. Here's an example in image on the left, below.

Then, select all the cells in the table, as in the right image below.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

In Word 2007, once you highlight the cells, Word's ribbon bar shows you the Table Styles. To the right of the styles, click on Borders to open the Borders and Shading dialog box.

In Word 2003, you'll find the same dialog box by highlighting the table, right-clicking on the highlighted section, and selecting Borders and Shading...

Make sure the "Apply to:" option box says Table, and then click the None setting on the left.

In the image on the right, you can see the table with the light cell shading that Word 2003 displays on the screen when you've selected None.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Next, we need to select the cells on the right-hand side of the table. These are the cells into which the users will enter their data.

Again, open Borders and Shading. This time, we're going to make cell borders at the bottom of each cell into which the user is to enter data.

First, select the style of line. Then, the Width (thickness) of the line. Make sure that Apply To says "Cell".

Now, use the button with the horizontal line at its bottom, to change the cell bottom of the bottom-most cell. Then, use the button with the horizontal line at its middle, to change the cell bottoms of the other cells.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Now, we can see an example of the form after someone has filled it in. But, the cells look quite full with that font and the underlines.

Let's select all the cells on the right side. Then, let's change the font size in those cells to a larger font (the default was 12 point, and now it's changed to 18 point). That gives us more space between the lines.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Now, on the left, we can see the nicely sized form with the data typed into it.

In the right hand image, see what happens if the user types too much data into the form. The table row will expand (get taller), as we see in the image on the right.

All that changed is that the word Company was typed instead of its abbreviation Co.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

We can't control how much the user will type into the cell, but we can control the height of the row into which he types.

Right-click on the cell in question (or all the cells, whichever you want to modify) and select Table Properties.

In the Table Properties dialog box, pick the Row tab. Then, put a check in the checkbox beside Rows-Specify Height, set the height you want, and change "Row height is" from At Least to Exactly.

On the right image below, we see the result, as the word Company, which wrapped to the next line, is no longer visible. At this point, the user would probably change Company to Co. so it would fit in the field.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Copyright © 2009 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.