How to Create a Fillable Form in Microsoft Word

Udn Webber

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On a Macintosh computer circa 1997, Kevan J. Atteberry created the first Microsoft-branded office assistant: Clippy.

No matter how many times I tried to get it right, Clippy was there to tell me I still wasn’t good enough. Popping out of nowhere to offer “help” because my work was sub-par. 😵‍💫

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Fast-forward to today, and the vast library of knowledge via technology and the Internet is at our beck and call. And thankfully, for me, Clippy has retired.

According to some sources, Office 365 is used by over a million companies worldwide , so it’s safe to say knowing how to use Microsoft Office is a resume must-have.

Fillable forms are a resource almost everyone in their career has either created or completed—and they’re not going away! Forms collect data, provide communication paths, and save time in workflows. ✨

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to:

Ready when you are!

What Is a Fillable Form?

UDN Task Manager transforms your work with industry-leading features

A fillable form is a digital form for users to fill out and send back. Of course, you can also print a form, but we’re not in 1997 anymore—let’s go paperless! 👩‍💻

Organizations create forms to collect meaningful data from employees and customers. Along with the sustainable and environmental benefits, it improves accuracy and productivity. (Not to mention a user-friendly experience for users!)

The level of customization depends on how simple or complex you want your fillable form to be.

You might have used a few basic controls to write cover letters to reports. However, when using Microsoft Word to create fillable forms, there are quite a few more controls to learn, so hike up those sleeves.

Developer Tab Controls We Wish Someone Explained to Us in Our Early Career Days

Before diving into a step-by-step tutorial, let’s unpack this intimidating term—the Developer tab.

OK, it’s not that intimidating once you get the hang of it. To achieve the type of form you want to build, getting acquainted with the controls section will help save time while creating your form.

These form controls (when used correctly) provide an interactive form for users to quickly understand what’s expected of them.

🔶The Developer Tab

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🔷Form Field Options

Text Boxes are most useful for a wide range of possible responses. These fields can be used to capture names, email addresses—just about anything! If you need a date field, use the date picker content control and customize it.

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Check Boxes are suitable for yes-no questions or to select one or more options from a set of choices.

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With the Combo Box , users can only select one option from a set of choices.

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Looking for more information on form building tools? Check out our Jotform alternatives guide ! ⭐️

How to Create a Fillable Form in Word

In this tutorial, I am using Microsoft Word for Mac Version 16.54. The steps and features may look different if you’re on a different platform or version. However, the end game is the same, so these tips can be applied with what you have!

Step 1: Building the Fillable Form

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On the Word menu, select Preferences > Ribbon & Toolbar > check Developer > click Save .

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If you take only one thing away from here, it should be this: organize your content before you start formatting.

You’ll save time and frustration if all your content is written and organized. I am so humbled today because of the hours I wasted starting over again because I didn’t know what I needed.

Let’s put this into practice. I want to create a museum volunteer form. Here’s my content planned out:

Not a bad start, but we can do better:

Version 2:

Can you spot the difference?

In version 2, I know exactly:

The hard part is over. Now let’s format!

Section 1: Contact Information

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Section 2: Availability

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Sections 3: Survey

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Text Box with Regular Text

Tip: copy the Text Box and paste it into other text fields for a faster build

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Text Box with Current Date

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Tip: copy the Check Box and paste it into other checkbox fields for a faster build

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Here’s a preview of the Combo Boxes after your form is protected. ⬇️

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Step 2: Customizing the Fillable Form

Have fun with this section! Change the font, add page borders, apply MS Word themes—whatever your heart desires!

Here are recommendations to make your form user-friendly:

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Step 3: Protecting the Fillable Form

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Step 4: Saving the Fillable Form as a Form Template

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Step 5: Sharing the Fillable Form

Now that you have a saved template sending a form to users will prompt them to save their completed form under a new name and as a .docx.

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Success! You now know how to create a fillable form in Word! Great job! 🥳

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Limitations of Fillable Forms in MS Word

While you can now add Microsoft Word fillable forms to your resume, it’s not the best software to create and send forms. Here are a few reasons:

The form responses start coming in. What do you do? 🤔

It’s a complicated process that includes Microsoft Excel to extract the data from MS Word form responses. You built this form to save time, so let’s not work backward!

There’s a Better Way

UDN Task Manager Forms are the future. The good news? You can start using them today!

And because UDN Task Manager works across devices , users can easily complete and return a form all from a link—and on the go! 📲🌐

Quickly switch between editing and viewing your UDN Task Manager Form

While various online form building software exists, only UDN Task Manager Forms allow you to turn collected responses into actionable tasks .

Review submissions and make quick decisions in a UDN Task Manager List view

UDN Task Manager Forms are easy to build, customize, protect, and share in UDN Task Manager . Additionally, there’s more than one way you can share a link: