InfoPath Dev

I am a new InfoPath user.  I don't have a computer science/IT background.  I just started using InfoPath 2007 to automate our complex contract formulation process that has lots of inputs and alternate clauses.  I copied the basic (required) contract structure/format from Word, which has hyperlinks and numbered sections.  I have used about 15 text boxes, three optional sections, and a normal section so far to control user input and choice that have worked perfectly.  When I get to this specefic section and many other random sections of the contract the control's (text box, rich text box, sections, etc.) values, placeholders, etc. (design mode) and user input when filling out the form don't display properly.  The first 10 or so characters are hidden in the left part of the control.  I have attached a screenshot of the problem.  After thoroughly searching it appears no one else has had this problem.  I am pretty sure copying from Word has caused this problem, but I don't know how to fix it.  I would much prefer to not have to manually type the numerous pages of the contract to avoid this problem.  Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Is the problem occurring on all of the text boxes, or just that one?  There's a good chance you can fix the problem by just deleting the text box and recreating it (drag the field from the data source taskpane into the form).  Have you given that a try?

The first 15 text boxes I used worked properly.  When I get to this section or other random sections after this point in the InfoPath document, this problem will occur.  And it occurs on text boxes, rich text boxes, sections, expression boxes, etc.  However, at other different points after the section in the screen shot, the text box and other controls will work properly, and I have no idea why.  I have deleted and reinserted text boxes multiple times but I still get the problem. I have renamed the document and even completely created the form again from the beginning, but once I get to a certain point in the document the controls' display values won't work, and I haven't been able to find a correlation despite hours of experimenting.

Here is another example.  This is a screenshot of both a good and bad text box right next to each other.  I have no idea why this would happen.  The good text box and its properties:

And the bad text box and its properties:

Could you attach an XSN where you've deleted all of the content except for a few of these problem controls?

Check the 'Size' tab of the controls, and of the sections the controls are in.

See if any of the 'margins' or 'border' values have been set to negative values. There might be some rendering dodginess passing those values to the text box and cause the text to draw 'offset' from where it should be.

Another work around to try might be to put the text in a 'layout table' and then put the text box in it's own cell of the table. Bit fiddly, but it puts the control in a 'world' of its own...

I am now almost certain that it is the hanging indentation that causes problems in the display values of the controls.

 I saw this same problem in a student's form. One method to "fix" it is to remove the hanging indent from the Word document and recreate it (not optimal I agree). I couldn't find any other way to fix it. I even tried making a new text field, but as soon as I mapped it to the original field, the hanging indent problem was back.

Did anyone figure out how to remove this?

I've also looked in the properties of the field, and the indents/padding/margins all look okay. 

I'm baffled!!

I have not found any solution to this problem, but I didn't really have time to research it.  I just reformatted, so that all hanging indents were removed.  This problem frustrated me for days.  I'm not a computer scientist, but I think it is a programming error in InfoPath.

 The only way I could "fix" this was to reformat the Word document to remove the hanging indent from all the text, save the document, and then recreate the form in InfoPath. I don't think that you can fix it once it's in InfoPath, at least as far as I could see.

You can actually fix this problem in InfoPath.  I had the same issue and used your hanging indent hint to figure it out.  If you select the text (or rich text) box, then go to format menu, and choose paragraph.  The right side of the screen should open up the paragraph formatting menu, and under Indentation is Indentation options.  Whatever you imported or cut/paste from Word will take that format, so...all you need to do is select none under indentation options instead of hanging.