Creating Drop-down List (Word 2002 SP3)

[Esschoir]

Ok, I'm sure I'm overlooking something wicked easy, but I looked in help (local and on office web site) and in two books, as well as searching the lounge.

I enabled the forms toolbar to insert a Drop-Down Form Field. I populated and re-ordered my drop-down list, hit ok, and the field is created with the first item listed by default.

But, er, um, there is no "drop-down", no down arrow to choose from the other items on the list.

What am I doing wrong?

Many TIA

[HansV]

You MUST protect the document for forms (using the last button on the Forms toolbar or Tools | Protect Document... > Forms) in order to be able to use the dropdown list. The dropdown arrow will only be displayed if the insertion point is in the form field.

[Esschoir]

Thanks Hans. Knew it was something simple. Surprising that none of the resources I tried before this forum explained that, though.

Thanks again

[Esschoir]

Hans (or anyone else who can help):

I have returned to this project. I am obviously a newbie at designing Word forms, so please bear with me..

Two problems now:

1) as long as the form is protected, I can't enter text in any of the text boxes I have created. Unprotecting it obviously removes this barrier, but then the drop-down box is deactivated.

2) When the text boxes are accepting text input, I would like the tab button to move to the next text box - not move one tab's length within the active text box. How do I accomplish this?

Many thanks!

[HansV]

One workaround is to use code to protect/unprotect the document as the user moves from section to section. See <post#=342898>post 342898</post#>.
Alternatively, you could do away entirely with protecting the document, and use the combo box from the Control Toolbox instead of the dropdown control from the Forms toolbar.

You can link text boxes using the first button on the Text Box toolbar. Text will then automatically flow from one text box to another. But I don't know how to make the Tab key let you move from one text box to the next.