creating fields in Word templates

[GREENCREST]

I'm working with Word for Mac and trying to do a couple of things with templates but having issues.

First, I want to create an editable text field where the user would click on it and be able to type the content needed. Every technique I tried keeps the placeholder text but I want it to disappear once the user clicks in the field

The second issue is when I reopen the dotx file, I want it to force  a save as. I thought it was supposed to do that automatically, but it overwrites the existing template file. How do I force the save as function?

[#2]

Did you ever resolve this ?
I was accustomed to do what you are attempting, but suddenly today I have the same issue.
All my old dotx files behave the same way now (as you describe) so that they open as dotx (not docx) and are simply over-written when saved.

[#3]

You should not be opening the .dotx files. Rather, you should be creating a new document based on the dotx file. The default action for a .dotx file is New, so if you double click on one of those files, a new document will be created based on the template.

Alternatively, add the New Document or Template command to the Quick Access Toolbar. When you click on that command, the classic New dialog will appear displaying the templates from both the User Templates folder and the Workgroup Templates folder and when you select a template and click on OK, a new document will be created from that template.