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 a Name in the Header of a Locked Form.

Entering a Name in the Header of a Locked Form

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 20, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Lynn has created a four-page form in Word. After locking the form, she would like the person completing it to enter his name in the NAME field inside a header so that his name will appear at the top of each of the pages of his completed form. Word tells her she can't do this, but she can't help but wonder if there is a workaround.

The header (as Lynn found out) is not accessible in a locked form. While a macro could be written to allow access to the header in some manner, such an approach would be overkill. The only reasonable workaround would be to follow these general steps:

Create a NAME field somewhere in the first page of the form. This is where the user will enter his name.
Apply a unique style to the NAME field. This should be a style that you don't use for any other purpose in the document, just for the NAME field.
Insert a StyleRef field in the header that references the style you used in step 2.

That's it. When the user enters in his name, Word automatically updates the StyleRef field in the header to include that name. More information on the StyleRef field can be found elsewhere in this issue, on the WordTips site (simply look for StyleRef in the Search box on any page), or at the following page:

http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/StyleRef.htm

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13388) 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 a Name in the Header of a Locked Form.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 6 + 3?

2022-03-08 08:13:02

Anne

Hi,

As you stated above, "When the user enters in his name, Word automatically updates the StyleRef field in the header to include that name." My problem is that it does not automatically update/appear in the Header until I Save the document and if I want to remove the info in the Header, I again have to Save the document. This is fairly new (3-4 months), as I never had to Save the document before.

Please let me know if you've come across this before and if so, can it be fixed?

2018-05-21 11:04:16

Bill Eger

can you send me the tip on creating a form field? I've tried every variation I can think of to search it but all tips are about form fields already existing .

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