Word Form Problems

[only1nimmo]

Hello,

 

I have created an application form using Word 2003 that I want to have as an attachment for my website and it all works and looks great on my PC. The problem I have is when I send it (or save it a shared area) and open the form on another person's PC some of the fields and tables are moved about and are not in the right place. I have made changes on the other PC and saved it, but then when I open it again on my PC it has similar errors! I have tried looking at it at home using Word 2007 and it all looks fine then sending myself a copy at work and again its all over the place. Can anyone please suggest what the problem might be as I have spent a lot of time on this already and really need this to be downloadable and able to fill out electronically and emailed back.

 

I have so far looked at the page settings in Word for different PC's and they are all the same as is the print settings so I know thats its not that. Anyway, I have attached the file for anyone to look at and I hope this can be solved. Another thing to mention is that its is only pages 3 and 4 where the fields seem to move about, pages 1 and 2 are always ok

 

Thanks in advance

Application Form 2.doc

[tommccann]

works fine on my 97 version, you got the same office version throughout?

[only1nimmo]

Yeah, we currently use 2003. Ive tried it with 2007 and still the same problems. I'm thinking I may have to start again

[elsiegee40]

Office 2003 here and it looks great

[only1nimmo]

Maybe, I just run with it and assume/hope that its a problem with some PC's at the school

[Jamo]

looks fine here too :s Sounds a bit weird to me, is it only over email you have the problem? The email program isn't formatting the attachment (for web view or anything) is it? Try compressing the file as a .rar and sending

[only1nimmo]

looks fine here too :s Sounds a bit weird to me, is it only over email you have the problem? The email program isn't formatting the attachment (for web view or anything) is it? Try compressing the file as a .rar and sending

 

No, its also saved on our system and has the same problem

[elsiegee40]

I should have said Office 2003 with the Office 2007 compatibility pack here...

 

Just a thought. It shouldn't make any difference, but...

[RichCowell]

The area for the Statement in Support could do with formatting so it doesn't expand if too much text is entered - which is limited, but you can still enter blank lines to space it out, which can cause issues....

 

If you right click on the frame - format frame - Height (was At Least) set to Exactly

 

Untick "Move with text"

 

Edit: I should have said, I was using Word 2007

Edited November 23, 2009 by RichCowell

[vikpaw]

Looks fine here too on Office 2003.

 

Great idea.

 

some thoughts :

 

as RichCowell said - not having sizes fixed can cause problems.

also, do different users have their own normal.dot files that could cause minor layout changes.

have you embedded any custom fonts that might not be available to all, which could be being substituted..?

[only1nimmo]

Thanks people, I have made the changes as per Rich Powell, thats really helpful thanks.

 

Not sure of the other users normal.dot files so I think with all of your help and opening this form without problems gives me the confidence to put it up on the website.

 

Thanks to all of you for replying and having a look at this for me, really appreciated

[RichCowell]

You're welcome (don't forget to click thanks :-p)

 

Badly designed forms really do my head in, I get loads of requests for support with them, so I'm always happy to help with things like that... well, when I've got time lol

 

Hope it works for you

[mac_shinobi]

use a pdf printer to convert said word document - but unsure how they would fill it out electronically unless they printed it off and scanned it back in filled

 

PHP or ASP page with a random image so you don't get spam and then they can fill it on a web form which gets logged / stored into a DB ie sql or mysql db

[penfold]

Looks fine here too on Word 2007. But I did have problems with using tables in Word between 2003 and 2007 where sometimes the document would become corrupt. I never got to solve the problem in the end as we moved everything over to 2007 and problem dissapeared.

 

Although if I try and fill in some of the fields on 3rd page I notice that it uses a different font for the Examinations Taken and Statement of support. Perhaps it could be to do with the font used as others have said? Could you try and format the document to use the same font throughout?

[only1nimmo]

Ok, so I have sent a copy of this to my home and opened it on my PC and laptop and no problems so guessing this is going to be fine now and that for whatever reason the couple of PC's I have looked at it on at work have some sort of setting that is different that causes the corruption.

 

The idea of the application is that pages 1-3 are completed and emailed back and paeg 4 is to be printed, filled in and faxed or sent back by post. So it wouldnt work if PDF and we already have one on our website, the idea was to change to this format to make it easier for the students and for us to administrate. So for now I am going to close this as complete, unless I get an influx of people telling me otherwise when I put it on the website!

 

Ive also made the font changes as suggested, not sure why they would have changed whilst I was making this form but hey-ho.

 

Thanks again for all your input and I'm sure I'll be back with another problem soon! (although hopefully I can also offer someone some help in the meantime)