Thousands of corporate & government offices have Microsoft Word documents that
are created as user fill-in forms. Typically those 'fill-in forms' transition
well when opened in OOo with the exception of the ability to the the Tab key
between input fields (this can be overcome by using Tools|Customize|Keyboard and
programing the Right & Left arrow keys to move between bookmarks), and perhaps
some slight formating issues. 

However there is a significant issue in that forms from MS Word (2003 and
earlier) that have protected text but allow user fill-in data in the input
fields, do not display the same document protection properties in OOo.

An public example of such a document is available here:
http://www.customs.govt.nz/library/form/C+Forms/default.htm
download and open the 'Ship Inward Report' document:
<http://www.customs.govt.nz/nr/rdonlyres/af900edf-a296-450a-a78b-d3f190e234b7/0/formc1new.doc>

The document is not protected but is useful for test purposes. If you were to
open the document in MS Word 2003 you can easily protect the document text and
yet allow the user to fill in the input fields. Testing on a Windows
XPProfessional system using MSO 2003 the document protection process is as
simple as:

1. Open formc1new.doc
2. Tools|Protect Document
3. In the Protect Document sidebar, Editing Restrictions click 
   "Allow only this type of editing in the document" and select
   "Filling in forms" then "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection".
4. Save the document.

On the otherhand, if I open formc1new.doc in OOo (tested in Windows and Linux
OOo 2.2.1, 2.3dev and StarOffice8 Writer) I cannot accomplish the same behavior
- or if there is a way I've not yet figured it out. If I use Edit|Select All
then Insert|Section|Write protection it write protects the entire document,
including the input fields. 
  Interestingly enough, if I move to the input field (example the one at "Name
of ship") I cannot enter information in the input field from the keyboard and
get "Readonly content cannot be changed, No modifications will be accepted.
However, if I click on the input field with the mouse I get the input field
pop-up window showing "Edit - Text1" and I *can* enter data in the field in the
large box below that. That behavior is unacceptable and odd; why would the user
not be able to edit from the keyboard, but *can* edit from the input field pop-up?

I consider this 'feature' to be critical. MSO users simply cannot convert to OOo
without the ability to use their existing user input field forms in OOo.
Fictitious example using the example text document: NZ Customs wish to issue
their Customs officers laptops/tablets with all existing MSO forms pre-loaded.
However they do not want the officers to be able to modify text on the forms
(e.g., INWARD REPORT header etc), but do want to enable the offices to easily
fill out the forms by Tabbing (or in our case perhaps R/L arrow) between fields,
and save the form/report when completed. 

Related posts/bugs that I could find:
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=65757
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=47799
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=33737
and of interest to me:
http://www.nabble.com/Fill-in-fields-t4065749.html#a11552629