[paulapg77]

I'm creating a word template, and I'm having a problem with the template when
I lock the cells.

I've divided the template into locked sections and unlocked sections using
breaks. When I'm in a section that is not locked, and I tab to go to the
next section that is locked, instead of moving to the next section, Word
creates a whole new cell below the one I was working in, and so on.

Is there any way to leave a cell unlocked and be able to tab to the next
section of the template?

[Gordon Bentley-Mix]

When you say that you "lock the cells" I'm assuming that what you mean is
that you have set forms protection on your template. (I believe that "locking
cells" is a concept reserved for Excel rather than Word.) Further, I am
assuming that you have applied this protection to leave certain sections
unprotected, and that one or more of these unprotected sections contains a
table. If I understand correctly, the problem you are reporting is that when
you press the Tab key in the last cell of a table in one of these unprotected
sections, Word is adding a row to the table rather than moving to the next
unprotected section.

I believe you may be getting confused with the way things work with form
fields. If a document is protected for forms and the document contains form
fields within a _protected_ section, pressing the Tab key moves to the next
form field. Further, if the document contains an unprotected section below a
protected section containing form fields, pressing the Tab key in the last
form field within the protected section then sets focus to the unprotected
section.

However, pressing the Tab key within an _unprotected_ section does not set
focus to the next unprotected section or the next form field in a protected
section. Instead, it simply does whatever pressing the Tab key would normally
do. (The section is unprotected, so *most* things work the way they would in
a fully unprotected document - with some notable and rather annoying
exceptions.) Therefore, the behaviour you have reported is entirely expected,
as the default response to pressing the Tab key in the last cell of a table
is to add a row to the table. In fact, you would probably find that pressing
the Tab key outside of the table (but, of course, still inside of the
unprotected section) would just insert a tab into the document.

Since things are working as designed, there really is no problem here.
However, there is a workaround. To move from one unprotected section to the
next, use the arrow keys instead of the Tab key. The up and down arrow keys
work the most efficiently, although the right and left arrows will get you
there as well... eventually.
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

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"paulapg77" wrote:

I'm creating a word template, and I'm having a problem with the template when
I lock the cells.

I've divided the template into locked sections and unlocked sections using
breaks. When I'm in a section that is not locked, and I tab to go to the
next section that is locked, instead of moving to the next section, Word
creates a whole new cell below the one I was working in, and so on.

Is there any way to leave a cell unlocked and be able to tab to the next
section of the template?