Changing a field from text to date.

I created a form in MS Word 2003 that I call a case tracking fom. It tracks the progress of business moving through the office. My goal is to insert mostly check boxes, a few radio buttons and a few date fields. I imported it into LiveCycle. Everything appeared fine (appearance is everything to a beginner) until I changed a text field to a date field. In addition to the "date" text which is easy to delete, you also get an extention to the right of the field that is yellow or orange in color. I don't know how to even highlight but when you switch to Preview PDF, where this extension ends you get what looks like a square hole in the form. I can't find anything in the help files, or the jargon (technical language) is beyond me. HELP, please!