Thursday, March 28, 2013

Fillable Ancestor's Chart

I'm still messing around with fillable forms. The latest one I've been messing with is an ancestor's chart.

You can set it up easily enough but filling it out is a bit weird because your cursor moves from field to field in row sequence. I'm not sure that I like that sequence.

The form works like the previous form you may have downloaded from this blog.

  • Click Tab to move your cursor to the next field.
  • Click Shift + Tab to move your cursor to a previous field. 
The Form
If you download this form, you'll download a fully functioning MS Word 2010 document that is protected, which prevents editing of the form layout but lets the person who is using the form complete the name, place, and date fields.

Here's what a person trying to use this form would do:

  • Download the form; for example, the person might download an email attachment--the form--from an email you sent to the person.
  • Open the form and add names, dates, and places to the form. Because the form is protected, the person completing the form won't be able to change anything else in the form other than the names, dates, and places.
  • Save the form under a new name. 
  • Return the form by attaching it to an email. 
The entire exchange of information is electronic.

If you, as the owner of the form, want to make changes to the form, you need to stop protection. Click here to see the post on this blog that talks about enabling and disabling protection.

The password to stop protection is form.

If you happen to mess up the form while editing, download another copy and try working with the form again.

Getting the Form
Click here to download a protected copy of the form. I've loaded the form on my SkyDrive to make it easy to deploy. However, that still means I have to make the right choices when creating the link. Email me (info@technology-tamers.com) if the link doesn't work well.

After the form opens in your browser, select File, Save As, and then click the Download button. Save the form to a location on your PC or laptop.

I'm liking my SkyDrive for deploying documents but I'm still in a bit of a learning curve. So please bear with me.

I hope you find this form useful. If you have a suggestion for a form, please send it along. I'll be happy to take a stab at creating it for you. You just need to give me a bit of time to play around with it.

Update...A Variation...

Hmmm...If I make the font smaller and put the fields in columns rather than a table, anyone filling in the form has their cursor move thru columns rather than rows.

Click here if you want to download a copy of this version of the ancestor chart.

Update to the Update...A Variation...
 
 
This version uses five columns, which should mean that you fill it out in order; that is, person, father, mother, and so forth. 

Click here if you want to download a copy of this version of the ancestor chart.

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