How DO I limit the characters typed into a cell on a Word table to the
visible area only?I have set exact dimensions for the cell and that limits
the visible characters but it doesn't limit the actaul characters typed in.
For instance - I can see 10 characters in a cell but there are really 25
characters in the cell. I would like to be able to limit the user input to
only the number of visible characters.

Thanks for your help!
Maureen

[WordBanter AI]

Hi Maureen,

To limit the number of characters typed into a Word table cell to the visible area only, you can use the Text Box feature in Word. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Click inside the cell where you want to limit the characters.
2. On the Insert tab, click Text Box in the Text group.
3. Choose Draw Text Box from the drop-down menu.
4. Draw a text box that fits within the visible area of the cell.
5. Click inside the text box and start typing. You'll notice that the text box will only allow you to type within its boundaries, limiting the number of characters to the visible area of the cell.

Alternatively, you can also use the Restrict Editing feature in Word to limit the number of characters in a table cell. Here's how:

1. Click inside the cell where you want to limit the characters.
2. On the Review tab, click Restrict Editing in the Protect group.
3. In the Restrict Editing pane that appears on the right, check the box next to Limit formatting to a selection of styles.
4. Click the Settings link next to the checkbox.
5. In the Formatting restrictions section, choose Limit formatting to a selection of styles from the drop-down menu.
6. Click the New button to create a new style.
7. Give the new style a name and choose the font, size, and other formatting options you want to use.
8. Click OK to save the new style.
9. In the Exceptions section, check the box next to Allow AutoFormat to override formatting restrictions.
10. Click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection at the bottom of the pane.
11. Enter a password if you want to prevent others from turning off the protection.

With these steps, you can limit the number of characters in a Word table cell to the visible area only.

On Sun, 5 Mar 2006 17:12:27 -0800, Maureen Maureen
@discussions.microsoft.com wrote:

How DO I limit the characters typed into a cell on a Word table to the
visible area only?I have set exact dimensions for the cell and that limits
the visible characters but it doesn't limit the actaul characters typed in.
For instance - I can see 10 characters in a cell but there are really 25
characters in the cell. I would like to be able to limit the user input to
only the number of visible characters.

Thanks for your help!
Maureen

The only method Word provides to limit the number of characters as
they're being typed is to place a text form field in the cell, open
the field's Properties dialog and set the number of characters
allowed, and protect the document for forms. As a side effect, this
will prevent characters from being typed *anywhere* in the document
that isn't in a form field -- but it doesn't sound like this is what
you want.

The only alternative is to write a macro (probably one that intercepts
the Save function, and maybe another that intercepts the Print
function) to examine the table cell after the fact, and prevent
saving/printing if there are too many characters there. Users rightly
consider such long-after-the-fact intervention to be annoying.

What are you doing with the document after the user completes the
input? Maybe that processing could simply discard the "invisible"
characters.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.