Word – How to increase visual length of form text field in Word

What I have found is that you'll need to write macros for each form field: http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/SetTabOrder.htm

I did a different work-around for my own form. I set it up so that the field I wanted to tab to was below the current, highlighed field. If you use a table, it'll work.

I created a three-cell table and divided my information accordingly across them. If you create more than one row, tabbing will go across--and you'll even land on cells where you can't make any entries or changes--so make sure you have a one-row table with columns across.

In each cell, I used a carriage return to add more information/fields. You can use CTRL+Tab to tab within the cell while you're creating your form for a nice, formatted look.

I used the LEGACY text form field, not the updated Word 2007 one (on the Developer tab in the Controls box, you'll see an icon of a file folder with a couple of tools criss-crossed in front of it).

Once you protect the form, you should be all set. I imagine you could play around with rows and columns if you need to tab across the form before tabbing down, but you would probably be limited in your options.

You can modify the field shading, similar to as detailed here, or as below for Word 2007: http://word.tips.net/T000554_Controlling_Field_Shading.html

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the View tab is selected. (See image)

3. Using the Field Shading drop-down list, specify how you want Word to handle field shading.
4. Click on OK.

There are three options you can specify in step 3. The default is When Selected, which simply means that the field is shaded when it is selected or you place the insertion point within the field. If you set the option to Never, then fields are never shaded, and (conversely) Always specifies that they are always shaded.

For Word 2007:

1. Click the Word button (round button on top left)
2. Click the Word Options button
3. Under Show document content, in the Field shading list, do one of the following:
   • To make fields stand out from the rest of the document content, select Always.
   • To make fields blend in seamlessly with the document content, select Never.
   • To make users of Word aware that they have clicked in a field, select When selected.

Note: When the field shading option is set to When selected, the field displays a gray background when you click within the field. However, the gray shading does not indicate that the field is selected. When you select the field by double-clicking or dragging the mouse, highlighting that indicates selection is added to the gray shading.