Conversion/ ReUse of MSWord Form Fields

[Callithumpian]

I am keen to convert a couple of my clients over to OO but have struck snag.

Architectural offices use a lot of MS Word "Forms" - documents in which editing is limited to certain fields which impose certain formatting requirements. Excellent for timesheets, invoices, all sorts of things where users' consistency cannot be relied upon.

When I open MSWord documents that are "form protected" OO mishandles them in many ways, not the least of which are not allowing default blanks and not calculating after fields are edited.

Is there a conversion process through which these file must first pass or am I doing something silly?

Cheers
Mark

[Callithumpian]

Anything? Anybody?

[jrkrideau]

My suspician is that it is just something that does not convert well. The Word > OOo translators are good but not perfect plus there is always the chance that you have a Word feature that has no OOo equivalent.

Perhaps the best approach would be to post an example somewhere so that other forum users can have a look at it.

Handy places to post a file:
media fire http://www.mediafire.com/
or
mytempdir.com http://www.mytempdir.com
or
sendmefile.com
http://www.sendmefile.com/
_________________
jrkrideau
Kingston ON Canada
Currently using Windows 7 & OOo 3.4.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 & LibreOffice 3.5.2.2

[Callithumpian]

Hey, thanks for taking an interest.

I have uploaded a sample as you suggested.
http://www.mediafire.com/?moniw2x5izi

Several things about this form are not working In OO as they do in MSWord.
Here a couple of crucial ones:-

1) The table does not calculate the totals if the Form Field entries in the right hand "amount" column change.

2) The formatting of Form Fields, such as the date, are not imposed. In MSWord if 12/02/2010 is entered into a "date" field it is automatically reformatted to 12 Feb 2010. Similarly, entering "250" in the "Amount" column will automatically reformat to "$250.00"


Also, it is one thing for me to convert existing forms to work in OO, but for the software to be a viable alternative for my clients, I would need to be able to create these types of forms in OOwriter. I am really hoping that it doesn't lack this (I always thought, basic) capability but from my explorations thus far I have not been able to work out how these types of partially protected forms are created in OO.

Any assistance or advice gratefully received.

Cheers and thanks again,
Mark