Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Entering Calculations in a Form Field.

Entering Calculations in a Form Field

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 13, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

Word allows you to create all sorts of forms, and even provides form fields that you can add to your documents. These form fields—known now as legacy form fields—are how you create and design your form. Exactly how you add legacy form fields has been covered in past issues of WordTips.

You may want to define a form field to contain a calculation. For instance, you might want a particular form field to contain the sum or the product of two other fields. Let's say you have two fields in your document; one of them is named Principal and the other is named Interest. If you wanted to create another field that shows the result of the two fields when multiplied by each other, you can follow these steps:

  1. Insert the result field as you normally would. (You would use the tools on the Developer tab of the ribbon.)
  2. Right-click the form field you just entered and click on the Properties option from the resulting Context menu. Word displays the Text Form Field Options dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Text Form Field Options dialog box.

  4. Using the Type drop-down list, choose Calculation.
  5. In the Expression field of the dialog box, enter the following expression:
     =Principal * Interest
  1. In the Bookmark field of the dialog box, enter the name for this field (Result).
  2. Click on OK.

Now, whenever the form fields are updated, the Result field will contain the result of your principal multiplied by your interest.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7838) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Entering Calculations in a Form Field.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Making Wider Footer Margins

Want the margins used in your footers (or headers) to be wider than the margins used in the rest of your document? There ...

Discover More

Setting Web Fonts

Is your worksheet information destined for a Web page? Here's how you can specify the fonts that should be used when ...

Discover More

Conditionally Formatting an Entire Row

Need to conditionally highlight an entire row based on the contents of a single cell in each row? This tip explains how ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Handling Returns in Form Data

Word allows you to create forms and then export the data from those forms into files that can be used by other programs. ...

Discover More

Spell Checking Forms

Word may be used to create protected forms that limit where the user may input data. Normally spell checking is disabled ...

Discover More

Stopping Enter from being Pressed In a Form

If you create a form using Word, chances are good that you don't want a user to mess up the layout of the form by ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is seven more than 7?

2025-05-13 11:20:54

peter roth

As noted, this tip does NOT apply to Word 2024, but crashes Word when right clicking on the form field. Compounding this, a msg from Word says the legacy form controls are deprecated.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.