Drop downs in Word 2003

[johnnykunst]

Hi, hope someone can help...
I'm creating a form for work using Word 2003- when the form is emailed to a
Blackberry, the set text is visible, but drop down entries are not, and when
serching through a folder of these forms by a word in the document text (we
use Windows XP) again, drop down entries are not recognised. At home I have
Word 2007, and neither of these problems occur. Also, I've noticed, when I
save a 2007 form to a 97-2003 compatible version, the drop downs become
static text, which is viewable and searchable.
Is there any way to eliminate this problem with drop downs in Word 2003?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

It sounds like you might be using the Content Controls that were introduced
in Word 2007. If you want something that will be compatible with Word 2003,
you will need to either use the Legacy FormField type Dropdown, which
requires that the document be Protected for Filling in Forms, or make use of
a User Form.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[johnnykunst]

I'm using Word 2003 for the form- no chance of an upgrade which would
eliminate the issue. I have never used VBA, so I doubt my chances of making a
drop down entry into static text through writing my own VBA.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I know nothing about what Blackberries are capable of when used with Word
documents.

If you are creating forms for use in both Word 2003 and 2007 environments,
they should be created with form fields from the forms toolbar and not
active x tools. The form should then be protected and saved as Word doc
format (Word 97-2003 doc format in Word 2007).

Dropdown formfields in a protected form will survive being saved as Word
2007 docx format, though for compatibilty to remain with Word 2003, docx
format should not be used. Nevertheless a Word 2003 installation with
compatibility pack will still be able to retain the dropdown fields from a
docx document.

As a test example, the following macro will create a protected document
containing 5 dropdown fields each with the options Yes or No. You can save
that document as a Word document or a Word 2007 document and the dropdowns
will be retained and work in either version. -
http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

Sub CreateDropdown()
Dim oDoc As Document
Dim oFld As FormFields
Dim oDD As DropDown
Dim oRng As Range
Dim bProtected As Boolean
Dim i As Long
Set oDoc = Documents.Add
bProtected = False
For i = 1 To 5
Set oRng = Selection.Range
oDoc.FormFields.Add oRng, _
wdFieldFormDropDown
oRng.InsertAfter vbCr
Next i
Set oFld = oDoc.FormFields
For i = 1 To oFld.Count
oFld(i).Select
If oFld(i).Type = wdFieldFormDropDown Then
Set oDD = oFld(i).DropDown
With oDD.ListEntries
.Clear
.Add "No"
.Add "Yes"
End With
Dialogs(wdDialogFormFieldOptions).Execute
End If
Next
oDoc.Paragraphs(1).Range.Delete
oDoc.Protect _
Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields, _
NoReset:=True, _
Password:=""
oFld(1).Select
End Sub


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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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