WD97: Fillin Field Prompts Twice

When you use the Fillin field in a new document, you are prompted twice for the information.

Word 97 has a new feature that automatically updates a Fillin field under the following conditions:

• The fill-in field is stored in a template other than Normal.dot.
  
  -and-
• You create a new document based on this template.
  
  NOTE: If a fillin field is placed in the normal template (Normal.dot), that fillin field does NOT update automatically when a new document is opened.

If you have an AutoNew or FileNew macro that issues a command to update fields, Word 97 will prompt you twice for each of your Fillin fields when creating a new document based upon the template containing the fields.

NOTE: This functionality is different from previous versions of Word, and there is no way to turn off this feature.

Method 1: Remove the AutoNew Macro

NOTE: This method may remove other functionality if the AutoNew macro performs additional tasks other than updating the fields.

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
2. Click AutoNew.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click Yes to the Do you want to delete the macro? prompt.
5. When you close the document, click Yes to save changes to the template.

Method 2: Lock the Fillin Fields

1. On the File menu, click Open and open your template.
2. Display the field codes in your document. On the Tools menu, click Options. Click the View tab. Under Show, click the Field Codes option to select it, and then click OK.
3. Select your Fillin field, and then press CTRL+F11.
   
   This locks the Fillin field so it will not update. Repeat this step for each of your Fillin fields.
4. Create an AutoNew macro with the following statement:

         ActiveDocument.Fields.Locked = False
         ' Note: If you do not want the fields
         ' to update automatically, do not add
         ' the following command line to your
         ' AutoNew macro.
         ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
   					

5. Close and save the macro and your template.

NOTE: Word updates Fillin fields before running an AutoNew macro. Because you have locked the Fillin fields, Word can only prompt once for each of your fillin fields as a result of the AutoNew macro.

Method 3: Use Form Fields

Use form fields to enter information into your form instead of the Fillin field.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Method 4: Use the Ask field

Use the Ask field to prompt you for the required information. Then use the REF field to insert the prompted information into your document.

For example: NOTE: Do not use the Fillin field.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Microsoft Word 97 retained, for backward compatibility, the use of certain fields to prompt you for the insertion of information into your document. In earlier versions of Word, you can use the Ask or Fillin fields to prompt you for information. Using these fields requires a macro that forces Word to bring up the field prompts automatically.

Microsoft Word 97 automatically brings up the prompt for any Fillin field you may have in your document without the use of a macro, but it does not bring up the prompt for the Ask field.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: