Microsoft Word MacroButton - placeholder text visibility

0
votes

I have a Microsoft Office 2013 Word template, in which I have some text-field elements, created by using Quick Parts -> Field -> MACROBUTTON noname [Type your text here].

If I fill only some of these fields (i.e. "[Name]", "[Address]") and I print or save as PDF, all the fields that I have not filled will display as [Insert your text here] in the printed paper or PDF. To be clear, the placeholder text must be manually removed (or replaced with the text you want).

I've readed somewhere, that you can create a macro, which will not display the placeholder text in the PFD- or printed version of the document, if there is no text written manually to that specific field (you leave it as it was). As this would be handy in cases, where you don't fill all the neccessery fields, my question is:

Q: Can this be achieved only by using Macro Button, and if not, what is needed to create text fields as described below that are not included in the printed or PDF saved version of the document?

1
vbams-word

1 Answers

0
votes

This cannot be achieved without using actual macro code. Right now your solution contains no macro code, the fields simply function as "targets" and when the user types on the field it is deleted. Where the user does not type, the prompt remains. You'd need code to delete these fields from the document.

Given your requirement, the code would have to fire in the DocumentBeforeSave and the DocumentBeforePrint events. These events require a class and supporting code in a standard module. The basic information on how to set these up is in the Word object model language reference: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff821218.aspx

An alternative to MacroButton fields would be to use ContentControls. But here, again, code and the same events would be required to remove/hide placeholder text.