Microsoft Word Drop Down List

To do this, create a new Word document or open an existing one. Click the “Insert” tab and then click the “Explore Quick Parts” button in the “Text” section. Select “Building Blocks Organizer” on the drop-down menu. The “Building Blocks Organizer” dialog box displays.

If you work for a business that needs to build form functionality into an existing processes or workflows, our team of custom application developers can assist. From custom Microsoft .NET solutions, to Office 365 and SharePoint development, we can help.

But if you're looking for a basic form for personal use, follow the steps below.

When you hear about fillable forms, you probably think of Adobe and PDF documents. However, if you have Microsoft Office, you can achieve a similar result using MS Word.

1. Enable Developer Tab. Open Microsoft Word, then go to the File Tab > Options > Customize Ribbon > check the Developer Tab in the right column > Click OK.

A developer tab will populate. The Controls section has about eight different options that can be added to your Word document: Rich Text, Plain-Text, Picture, Building Block Gallery, Checkbox, Combo Box, Drop-Down List, and Date Picker.

2. Insert a Control. Click on the control and it will appear wherever your cursor was located.

In the example below are two plain-text boxes inserted into a simple table for first name and last name.

The ContentControlListEntries collection contains ContentControlListEntry objects that represent the items in a drop-down list or combo box content control. Use the Add method to add an item to a drop-down list or combo box. The following code example uses the Add method to add several list items to a new drop-down list content control.
We click on “Form without title” to add a title to the form. The title may have up to one. Next, we click on the Add question option to add a new question to the form. We can add option, text, classification or date questions. To add option questions we write the text of the question and each of the options.
You can remove a Drop Down List box from your word document by going into design mode and then selecting the list box and pressing your delete key on your keyboard.

By default, each control has its own filler text. For a plain text control, it is ‘Click or tap here to enter text.’

3. Edit Filler Text. Customize the filler text for any control by clicking on Design Mode.

You’ll see blue placeholders appear around your place holder. Select the text and change it to whatever you like. Click on the

Design Mode button again to exit the mode.

4. Customize Content Controls. Highlight your new form field and then click on Properties, directly below the Design Mode button.

Here you can give the control a title, change the color, style the text and specify whether or not the control can be edited or deleted. At the very bottom are the control specific options, so if you have a plain text control set up, you can control how many lines you want to allow. That last option is useful if you need someone to type in a paragraph of text.

Plain-text control vs. rich text control

In a rich text control, you can change the font/color settings for each word individually, whereas the plain-text control will apply the formatting to all the text. Plain-text controls do allow bold, font changes or color changes.

Add a Drop Down List

If you need a drop down field added to your form go ahead and insert the drop down control. Highlight the field and again go to Properties to add your custom drop down options.

By default, the Display Name and Value will be the same, but you can change it if you like. There really is no reason to change the value unless you are writing Word macros and refer to the controls in code.

Hint: If your drop down field is not displaying make sure you are out of the Design Mode control.

Drop Down List vs. Combo Box

The only difference between the dropdown list control and the combo box control is that the latter allows the user to enter their own value.

Date Picker

The date picker control works just like any date picker you have probably used before. When you click on it, a calendar appears and you can simply click on the date to select it.

Microsoft Word 2010 Drop Down List

Picture Control allows the user to upload or insert an image file easily.

Bonus tip: Make sure you use tables to create well-organized forms.

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How to insert a drop down list in Word?

In Word, Drop down list is a good content control for users to select one of preset values from pull-down menu. This article will show you the detailed steps to insert a drop down list in your Word document.

Insert a drop down list in Word

To insert a drop down list in a Word document, please do as follows:

1. Click File > Options.

2. In the opening Word Options dialog box, please (1) click Customize Ribbon in left bar, (2) check Developer in the right box, and (3) click the OK button. See screenshot:

3. Now the Developer tab is added in the Word Ribbon. Please click Developer > Drop-Down List Content Control button. See screenshot:

4. Now a new drop down list is inserted in current document. Go ahead to click Developer > Properties. See screenshot:

5. In the Content Control Properties dialog box, please:
(1) name the drop down list in the Title box;
(2) click the Add button in the Drop-Down List Properties section;
(3) In the Add Choice dialog box, type one choice in the Display Name box and click the OK button;
(4) Repeat above step (2) and (3) to add other choices for the drop down list;

6. Click the OK button in the Content Control Properties dialog box.

So far, you have inserted a drop down list with specified title and choices in your Word document. See screenshot:

One click to insert checkbox symbol or checkbox (content control) in Word

In general, you can insert a checkbox symbol with finding it from symbol library, or insert a checkable checkbox control with enabling Developer tab and adding such a content control. Both seem not easy! Do not worry! Kutools for Word provides a Check Box feature, not only supports a various kinds of checkbox symbols, but also can help you insert checkable checkbox control with only one click easily! Click for 60-day free trial!