Download a document that contains a customized drop-down list and demonstrates how drop-down lists in Microsoft Word work from prodtips.xyz/2018/11/22/drop-down-lists-in-word/
I have created a drop-down list and a dependent drop-down list. However each selection has a long sentence entry and in a table. I need it to word wrap vertically. It keeps spreading out horizontally and messing up the table.
Hi there, great advice and tutorial! The one question I'm hunting the answer for is; How do I change the drop down box name? I want it to say something else rather than 'Choose an item.' as this isn't always relevant. Thank you.
+Caitlin McCartan Hi and glad you liked the tutorial. What you are referring to is not actually the drop down box name, but the default list item in a drop down box. The good news is that you can easily change it or completely remove it by selecting the drop down box and clicking on "Properties" in the "Controls" Section of the "Developer" tab. From the "Drop Down List Properties" section select "Choose an item..." and you will see a number of options like for any other drop down box list item, like remove, modify, move up etc. From there you can remove it completely or by clicking on "modify" change it to whatever you want.
Hi, I would like to know if there's a way to change the colour of each list item. Let's say my question is "What's your favourite colour?" and I want have different coloured options to select from. Thanks!
Hi, i can't reproduce the issue. I can change the selected option as desired. Make sure that the option Contents cannot be edited is not selected, but if that was case you shouldn't be able to select an option in the first place. As i said i can add a drop-down list and change the selected option without any problems.
I want to create a drop down that has 3 main categories and each has subcategories. I need to use the same drop down in 4 different places in the MS Word document. How do I do that? I'm stuck, thank you.
Hi. You obviously can't do something that complicated with a simple drop-down menu like the one i demonstrate in the video. You will have to use code to do what you want, not sure if it's possible in VBA, or in fact if possible at all in a Word document. If i have the time, i will look into it, but i'm currently very busy.
Hi, i don't think you can. You probably need another control or a different method. I was able to add a couple of sentences as an option, so if you want to use even more characters you will have to use something different.
Hi. You would need VBA to do that. Set the default color to, say, red and then change it once the user selects a different option to green using VBA. You need a macro enabled word document to do that obviously, For security reasons Word often disables macros and VBA code these days.
Thanks for that I am using a dropdown list on surface pro, when i select the arrow the list appears but the font is very small. is there any way of increasing the size of the font on the drop down box to make it easier to select, but keep the text in the document calibri 11
You are welcome. Check the part where i explain how to use a style to format the text of the drop down menu. Let me summarize the process here in a few words, but you can also see it in the video. Click on the drop down list control. From the Developer tab click on Properties. Check the "Use a style to format text typed into the empty control" checkbox. Then click on "New Style" right below. From the pop-up menu that will appear, from the Formatting section you can change the font size, the font color or the font family, make it bold, italic etc. The font and font size in the rest of the document won't be altered.
This is very helpful. If we have a drop down, per selection of the drop down, i want the document to made visible certain section. ie, i have sections A, B, C... if we select A, then only A section will be shown and B&C hidden. Then if we select B in dropdown, then A&C will be hidden and so on.. how do i get this?
You would need code to do that, you can't do dynamic stuff with a simple drop down control. You'd have to set up event handlers that would fire once a selection was made, then programmatically perform the desired action depending on the user's selection. You'll have to look into VBA or perhaps one of the full programming languages (for example C#) that can be used with Office apps.
hello if i choose some from choose an item it titns then to gray. i eant te rest to be black but the choose item to be red forevet. how do i do that. thanks
Hi. Go to properties, then select "use a style to format text typed into the empty control", then click on New Style and in the pop-up menu that will appear set the font color to red. I demonstrate how to do all that in the video. Thanks for watching!
Hi again. According to Microsoft a drop down list can scale from one to many thousand elements. If that's not what you are looking for, then i'm afraid i'm not familiar with what you are asking. Good luck.
Hi. All the elements will be on the same row in a drop-down list. I think what might help you is a Repeating Section Content Control. Insert a Repeating Section Content Control (third row, first element) and then nest 3 drop-down boxes. This will allow the user to make a different selection for each drop-down box. Other than a Repeating Section Content Control it is not possible to have a multi-row element, in a drop-down box only single-row elements are allowed.
Hi, can you be a bit more specific? I'm not sure what you mean by a scaled drop down list. If you want to make your drop down list appear bigger or smaller just select the control and adjust the font size.
How can I make it so that 'Choose an item' (i.e. pre-selected) is orange, but it changes to the standard Body Text style when the user has selected an option? I have a document that does this, but I can't work out how it was done. Now that I have to update the list options, it's stopped working this way.
This would require code, i believe, i'm pretty sure your document had VBA code. You can't change elements of a document dynamically without using VBA. By default the applied style applies to every element in the list. I can look up the required code if you'd like but it would take some time, since i'm busy these days.
@@winoffice I worked out a solution! Using the 'Default paragraph font' in the Properties, then formatting the default text within the template as 'Placeholder text' a built in Word character style.
@@millsy1921 Hi - could you let me know how you did this please? I can see the box in the "Content Control Properties" where you tick "Use a style to format text typed into empty control" and select "Style: Default Paragraph Font". After that I don't know how to just format the default text??
that is ridiculous to type in separately in the drop down list properties, is there a way to simply copy and paste list from Excel? I have over 200 words to add, can anyone help on this pls
I'm afraid you can't remove it completely, even if you select it and remove it from the properties, the drop-down control will still display the "Choose an item" text. A trick i found is switching to design mode and replacing the text with a dot and then setting the font color to white. But the drop-down control won't be visible if there's no default text, the user will have to click within the control to make it visible. This is just a hack though, simply having an empty drop-down control is not possible. This is the best i can explain it without being able to show you what i mean.
Hi. I believe you could do that but only programmatically, if you use some VBA code, by setting up an event handler and showing a message box to the user once a selection was made. It would only work on PCs with VBA activated though.
@@ahmadfaris8044 Use a Repeating Section Content Control and nest two, or even more than two, drop down boxes inside it. Developer Tab, Controls section, first element in the third row.
Automatically? I'm afraid not. Manually? Definitely yes but it will obviously take time depending on the number of items in your list. I assume you already know how, but in any case from the "Content Control Properties" pop-up window, the "Drop-Down List Properties" Section" select a list item and then click on Move Up or Move Down to change its position in the list.
You are welcome. Sorting an extensive list manually is definitely burdensome. In my opinion the best solution is to first alphabetize the list in excel and then add the various elements to the drop-down list, instead of having to move them up or down after you created the list.
Unfortunately, no. At least not in an easy way. Maybe with some VBA it would have been possible (and that's a maybe at best), but there is no straightforward way to do this easily.
Download a document that contains a customized drop-down list and demonstrates how drop-down lists in Microsoft Word work from prodtips.xyz/2018/11/22/drop-down-lists-in-word/
I have created a drop-down list and a dependent drop-down list. However each selection has a long sentence entry and in a table. I need it to word wrap vertically. It keeps spreading out horizontally and messing up the table.
Maybe try adjusting the table properties. I don't know if and how you can wrap text in a drop-down list.
Thanks! Saved me a lot of time
Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
You are welcome. Glad i could help.
Great Explanation! thanks a lot
Very useful tutorial. Thanks.
You're welcome!
Thank you very much, I have beeen looking for this feature all day without being able to find it...
You are welcome. Glad I could help!
Hi there, great advice and tutorial! The one question I'm hunting the answer for is; How do I change the drop down box name? I want it to say something else rather than
'Choose an item.' as this isn't always relevant. Thank you.
+Caitlin McCartan Hi and glad you liked the tutorial.
What you are referring to is not actually the drop down box name, but the default list item in a drop down box.
The good news is that you can easily change it or completely remove it by selecting the drop down box and clicking on "Properties" in the "Controls" Section of the "Developer" tab. From the "Drop Down List Properties" section select "Choose an item..." and you will see a number of options like for any other drop down box list item, like remove, modify, move up etc. From there you can remove it completely or by clicking on "modify" change it to whatever you want.
Great job!
Thank you! Cheers!
Thank you for this lesson. Very helpful for a form design I'm starting.
You are welcome, Kenneth. Good luck with your project.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Hi, I would like to know if there's a way to change the colour of each list item. Let's say my question is "What's your favourite colour?" and I want have different coloured options to select from. Thanks!
The same exact question that I cane here to look for an Answer for
hi, thanks for the tutorial. I have a question here, once I chose an item, I can't re-choose others. Is there any way to fix this? Thank You.
Hi, i can't reproduce the issue. I can change the selected option as desired. Make sure that the option Contents cannot be edited is not selected, but if that was case you shouldn't be able to select an option in the first place. As i said i can add a drop-down list and change the selected option without any problems.
I want to create a drop down that has 3 main categories and each has subcategories. I need to use the same drop down in 4 different places in the MS Word document. How do I do that? I'm stuck, thank you.
Hi. You obviously can't do something that complicated with a simple drop-down menu like the one i demonstrate in the video. You will have to use code to do what you want, not sure if it's possible in VBA, or in fact if possible at all in a Word document. If i have the time, i will look into it, but i'm currently very busy.
You can post a question on the relevant section of stack.overflow. Many knowledgeable people there.
How can you add longer options. It currently has a limit on characters added.
Hi, i don't think you can. You probably need another control or a different method. I was able to add a couple of sentences as an option, so if you want to use even more characters you will have to use something different.
How would I change the Font on each item in the list - ie "Action Required" (in red) but "Completed" (in Black)
Hi. You would need VBA to do that. Set the default color to, say, red and then change it once the user selects a different option to green using VBA. You need a macro enabled word document to do that obviously, For security reasons Word often disables macros and VBA code these days.
Thanks for that
I am using a dropdown list on surface pro, when i select the arrow the list appears but the font is very small. is there any way of increasing the size of the font on the drop down box to make it easier to select, but keep the text in the document calibri 11
You are welcome. Check the part where i explain how to use a style to format the text of the drop down menu. Let me summarize the process here in a few words, but you can also see it in the video.
Click on the drop down list control. From the Developer tab click on Properties. Check the "Use a style to format text typed into the empty control" checkbox. Then click on "New Style" right below. From the pop-up menu that will appear, from the Formatting section you can change the font size, the font color or the font family, make it bold, italic etc.
The font and font size in the rest of the document won't be altered.
how to make it an option to select multiple items in list?
Unfortunately this isn't possible.
This is very helpful. If we have a drop down, per selection of the drop down, i want the document to made visible certain section. ie, i have sections A, B, C... if we select A, then only A section will be shown and B&C hidden. Then if we select B in dropdown, then A&C will be hidden and so on.. how do i get this?
You would need code to do that, you can't do dynamic stuff with a simple drop down control. You'd have to set up event handlers that would fire once a selection was made, then programmatically perform the desired action depending on the user's selection. You'll have to look into VBA or perhaps one of the full programming languages (for example C#) that can be used with Office apps.
hello if i choose some from choose an item it titns then to gray. i eant te rest to be black but the choose item to be red forevet. how do i do that. thanks
Hi. Go to properties, then select "use a style to format text typed into the empty control", then click on New Style and in the pop-up menu that will appear set the font color to red. I demonstrate how to do all that in the video. Thanks for watching!
My Developer Tools Do not allow for me to access the drop-down list control. What is the reason for this?!?!?!
Can I format dropdown items individually so the colour changes according to my dropdown choice?
Thanks. I repeat the question 'what is the maximum scale percentage available in scale drop down?'
Hi again. According to Microsoft a drop down list can scale from one to many thousand elements.
If that's not what you are looking for, then i'm afraid i'm not familiar with what you are asking.
Good luck.
Is it possible to add to drop down list a multi-row element, like a letter intestation (i.e. Name, address, phone...) thanks!
Hi. All the elements will be on the same row in a drop-down list. I think what might help you is a Repeating Section Content Control. Insert a Repeating Section Content Control (third row, first element) and then nest 3 drop-down boxes. This will allow the user to make a different selection for each drop-down box. Other than a Repeating Section Content Control it is not possible to have a multi-row element, in a drop-down box only single-row elements are allowed.
Thank You Very Much...
You are welcome!
Can I make it so the " choose an item" is blank?
Thanks for the representation. What is the scale percentage available in a scale drop down list.?
I could not find answer
Hi, can you be a bit more specific? I'm not sure what you mean by a scaled drop down list. If you want to make your drop down list appear bigger or smaller just select the control and adjust the font size.
thank you for the tutorial. Is it possible to save a word document with drop downs in as a pdf - so that the drop down's then appear within that PDF?
Hi. Unfortunately it isn't. You would have to use a PDF editor to do that.
How can I make it so that 'Choose an item' (i.e. pre-selected) is orange, but it changes to the standard Body Text style when the user has selected an option? I have a document that does this, but I can't work out how it was done. Now that I have to update the list options, it's stopped working this way.
This would require code, i believe, i'm pretty sure your document had VBA code. You can't change elements of a document dynamically without using VBA. By default the applied style applies to every element in the list. I can look up the required code if you'd like but it would take some time, since i'm busy these days.
@@winoffice I worked out a solution! Using the 'Default paragraph font' in the Properties, then formatting the default text within the template as 'Placeholder text' a built in Word character style.
Great. Glad you figured it out.
@@millsy1921 Hi - could you let me know how you did this please? I can see the box in the "Content Control Properties" where you tick "Use a style to format text typed into empty control" and select "Style: Default Paragraph Font". After that I don't know how to just format the default text??
that is ridiculous to type in separately in the drop down list properties, is there a way to simply copy and paste list from Excel? I have over 200 words to add, can anyone help on this pls
How do you delete the drop down
You can either cut it or switch to design mode and press the backspace.
My computer volume's all the way up and I can't hear it. Moving on.
How do I remove "Choose an Item" from the text box? I only want to see the drop down control.
I'm afraid you can't remove it completely, even if you select it and remove it from the properties, the drop-down control will still display the "Choose an item" text. A trick i found is switching to design mode and replacing the text with a dot and then setting the font color to white. But the drop-down control won't be visible if there's no default text, the user will have to click within the control to make it visible. This is just a hack though, simply having an empty drop-down control is not possible.
This is the best i can explain it without being able to show you what i mean.
would it be possible to have the Choose an item fade and get the text to pop up one the user made a selection ?
Hi. I believe you could do that but only programmatically, if you use some VBA code, by setting up an event handler and showing a message box to the user once a selection was made. It would only work on PCs with VBA activated though.
Hi, i need multiple items in the same box, any way to do it?
Hi, what do you mean by multiple items in the same box?
@@winoffice i created a table box and inside the table box can fit only one drop-down list. Can't add second list menu
@@ahmadfaris8044 Use a Repeating Section Content Control and nest two, or even more than two, drop down boxes inside it. Developer Tab, Controls section, first element in the third row.
I added a large number of items to the drop down list and I'd like to alphabetize them. is this possible?
Automatically? I'm afraid not. Manually? Definitely yes but it will obviously take time depending on the number of items in your list. I assume you already know how, but in any case from the "Content Control Properties" pop-up window, the "Drop-Down List Properties" Section" select a list item and then click on Move Up or Move Down to change its position in the list.
WinOffice thank you. The list, unfortunately is extensive...all countries and regions. I will just have to work at it for a while.
You are welcome. Sorting an extensive list manually is definitely burdensome. In my opinion the best solution is to first alphabetize the list in excel and then add the various elements to the drop-down list, instead of having to move them up or down after you created the list.
Is it possible to have each item in the drop down list be hyper-linked?
Unfortunately, no. At least not in an easy way. Maybe with some VBA it would have been possible (and that's a maybe at best), but there is no straightforward way to do this easily.
Shit. Just my luck.