Creating Traditional Forms

Many people use Word to create what I refer to as "traditional forms." By this I mean forms using nothing but text and lines; I do not mean the types of forms using special fields that Word allows you to create. Traditional forms are typically printed and reproduced to be filled-in by someone using a pen, pencil, or typewriter. They may include checkboxes, but often simply include response lines.

When putting together a form, many people type some text, and then follow that by a line for the form user to fill in. When creating the line, you have many different techniques you can use. The simplest is to use the underscore character (a shifted dash) to create the line. If you have multiple lines in the form you are creating, you won't get a professional look by using the underscore. This is due to the variable nature of proportional space fonts. When you use the underscore with other text on the same line, the right edges of your lines almost never line up.

To get around this problem, you can use tabs with leader characters to get a professional look. Simply type your text, followed by a space, then hit the Tab key. Format the line so that it has a right-aligned tab at the place you want the line to stop. Also make sure that the tab uses the underscore character for a leader. This approach looks much more professional than if you use underscores.

You can also use tables to put together your forms. For instance, you could use a two-column table. In the left column you would place your prompting text, and in the right put your underline characters. This is an easy approach, but it often places your fill-in-the-blank area (the underline) quite a distance from the prompting text. If you are creating simple forms, this may be more than acceptable, however.

Finally, you can use the drawing tools in Word to create your underlines. (The drawing tools are available on the Insert tab of the ribbon.) If you do this, you can place your underlines anywhere you want and make them any thickness you want.

If you want to frame your form, meaning to put a border around the whole thing, there are four ways you can do so. The first is by using a standard Word text box. If you do, however, make sure you create the text box before starting to design your form. If you don't, the text box displaces the text in your form, and you need to move it all within the text box later. You can, of course, select the text that makes up your form, and then choose to insert a text box. In this case, the selected text (which is your form) is placed inside the text box. You may then have some reformatting to do to ensure your form appears as you expect.

Another way to put a border around your form is to draw a rectangle around your form. If you use this method of bordering, some of the elements of your form (particularly if you are drawing lines) may disappear, depending on your drawing settings. You can get around this by selecting the rectangle and using the positioning tools available in the Arrange group on the Shape Format tab of the ribbon. The idea is to send the rectangle completely to the back of your form by selecting the Send to Back tool.

A third way to create the border is to simply select all the paragraphs in your form and then display the Borders tab of the Borders and Shading dialog box. (Display the Home tab of the ribbon, click the down-arrow next to the Borders tool, then choose Borders and Shading.) You can select the type of border to create, and then choose a line effect for the border. There is one instance when this type of border will not work as expected: if you use different margin formatting on the paragraphs in your form. For instance, you may have a couple of paragraphs with a half-inch left and right indent, which makes the margins different than the other paragraphs in the form. In this case, this type of border will not look good.

If your form takes up an entire sheet of paper, you can add a border to the page itself. You do this by displaying the Borders and Shading dialog box, as discussed earlier, but working with the Page Border tab. The controls on this tab are very similar to those on the Borders tab, with the exception that they apply to the page as a whole.

A final word on putting your forms together. If you want to create check boxes, you can do so by using symbols. Use the Symbol tool from the Insert tab of the ribbon to display the Symbols dialog box and then make sure the Wingdings font is selected. There are a few boxes to choose from as you scroll through the dialog box. These provide different effects but work great for check boxes. Experiment a bit and select the box that is right for you.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9566) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Creating Traditional Forms.