Fill-in form for pre-printed forms?

[FormGuy]

I have a pre-printed form that I need to fill in and then print the answers
on the forms fed into my printer. How can I do this?

[Jay Freedman]

Not easily, if you must use Word. There are several approaches, but
they're all fiddly and time-consuming.

My first recommendation, if the filled forms don't have to be
machine-processed, is to forget about the preprinted forms. Duplicate
the form completely in Word or some other application so that the
completed form can be printed on plain paper. Use tables to hold the
text and form fields. The article
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22 is an
introduction to setting up a form with form fields.

If you have to use the preprinted forms, one of the better approaches
is to take a scan of the empty form and insert it in a blank Word
document, anchoring it in the header
(http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/AnchorToHeader.htm) and setting it
to "Behind Text". Use measurements to make sure this background is the
same size as the actual form. Then use borderless tables or frames,
positioned over the form's blanks, to hold the form fields. Finally,
in Tools > Options > Print, uncheck the option for printing drawing
objects; that will prevent the scanned image from printing, leaving
the form field contents to print -- with luck, in the blanks of the
preprinted sheets.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
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