Set a fixed height for the table rows (on the Row tab of Table | Table Properties). This won't prevent users from entering "too much" text in the cell, but it will preserve your layout and prevent the excess text from displaying and printing.
If you want to set a character limit, you would have to insert text form fields, set the desired options, and then protect the document. See http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm. This may be overkill, though, unless you need to perform tasks, such as calculations, with the data entered in the form. And it won't prevent users from pressing Enter to add paragraph marks, which means that you still need to set a fixed height for table rows, unless you make use of macros.
-- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP
"laura" wrote in message news:1E5C9F96-04DC-42AC-993A-3657DB55F353[ at ]microsoft.com...
[Quoted Text] > I created a form in word using table cells. The form will be filled
out > using word. > The problem I'm having is when someone hits enter the cell grows bigger, or > if you backspace to the beginning of the cell the cell size shrinks. How do > I protect the fields from expanding and collapsing. I want a fixed cell that > will only accept a certain number of characters. > -- > Laura
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