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ADD POP-UP LISTS TO ANY WORD
DOCUMENT
ADD POP-UP LISTS TO ANY WORD DOCUMENT SO YOU CAN CLICK YOUR WAY THROUGH
CHANGES IN SECONDS
by Bill Coan (http://www.wordsite.com)
Do you re-use some of your documents over and over again, making slight
changes just before you print, fax, or email it each time? Do you, for
example, send the same basic letter to each new customer, but edit the
letter each time
so that it refers to the specific product purchased by that customer?
If you do this a lot, you can justify spending $50 or $60 for a Word addin to
make your life easier. But starting with Word 97, there's an easy way to add a
pop-up list of choices to any Word document. This new feature lets you point at
a word or phrase and simply right-click the mouse to switch to some other word
or phrase.
For years Word has been able to do something similar with drop-down form fields,
but many users chafe at the limitations imposed by form fields. For example,
form
fields require that documents be protected for forms, which means you have to
sacrifice spellchecking, drawing tools, and text formatting. That's quite a
penalty to pay, just so you can choose an item from a list!
In Word 97 and Word 2000, you can sidestep this penalty by
relying on a new feature called the AutotextList field. Before I show you
how easy it is to use this new field, I need to provide some background
about Autotext entries and
paragraph styles for users who haven't explored these items.
IMPORTANT!
If you're already familiar with Autotext entries and paragraph styles, or if
you're not interested in "looking under the hood," feel free to skip
over these background
items and jump right into the procedure that follows.
Background
Item #1:
Autotext entries are snippets of text and/or graphics that
can be added to your document by choosing the desired entry
from the Autotext toolbar. (To display this toolbar,
right-click any other toolbar and choose Autotext.)
Background Item #2:
Word's default global template, normal.dot, ships with
numerous Autotext entries but you can create additional
entries and store them in normal.dot or in any other
template desired.
Background Item #3:
Paragraph styles are collections of paragraph properties
that can be applied to a paragraph by clicking in that
paragraph and then choosing the desired style from the
dropdown list of styles on the Formatting toolbar. You can
create new paragraph styles and store them in normal.dot or
in any other template or document desired.
Background Item #4 (the kahuna):
What few users realize is that Word organizes its Autotext
entries by paragraph style. For example, if you click in a
paragraph that has been styled as "Product Name," Word's
Autotext toolbar will automatically display only those
Autotext entries that have been designated as Product Names
(assuming there are any). The AutotextList field has this
same ability, except that it pops up the list of Product
Names when you point at the field in your document and
click the right mouse button.
Ready to create your first pop-up list? Don't be intimidated by the number of
steps. Each step involves just one or two mouse clicks and all 13 can be
completed in less than five minutes. Besides, you only have to do this procedure
once for each list and then you can use each list over and over again as needed.
Before you begin, you may want to print out this procedure to guide you along
the way.
Create a pop-up list of products:
1. On the Standard toolbar, click the tool to display
paragraph marks if not already displayed.
2. Position the cursor in an empty paragraph.
3. From the dropdown list of styles on the Formatting
toolbar, choose the Normal style if not already chosen.
4. Type your list of products, pressing <Enter> after each product
name.
5. With your mouse, select the entire list of products.
6. Choose Format | Style | New and name the new style
ProductStyle and click OK and then click Apply.
7. Highlight each individual product name (being very
careful not to highlight the paragraph mark after the
name) and press Alt+F3 and hit OK.
8. Delete the list of products and again choose the Normal
paragraph style if not already chosen.
9. Press Ctrl+F9 to insert a pair of field braces. { }
10. Type the following expression between the field braces
EXACTLY AS SHOWN:
{ AutotextList "product" \s "ProductStyle"
\t "Right-click to select product" }
11. With the cursor still between the braces, press F9 to
update the field (If this fails to hide the field
code,
press Alt+F9 to hide the code.)
12. With your mouse, select the new field, being careful
not to select the paragraph mark that follows the
field.
13. Press Alt+F3 and hit OK.
Insert a product list in your document:
1. Click where you want the list to appear.
2. Start typing "product"; if Word offers to complete the
typing for you, press Enter or Tab to accept the
autocompletion. If Word doesn't offer to complete the
typing for you, select "product" and press
F3.
Pop up the product list:
1. Point at "product" and click the Right mouse button.
2. Choose the desired product.
How it works:
The secret to the AutotextList field is in the field code,
repeated here for ease of reference:
{ AutotextList "product" \s "ProductStyle" \t
"Right-click to select product" }
Here's what each element of the code means:
AutotextList
This is the field type. This particular type of field
creates a pop-up list.
"product"
This is the field's default value. After the field is
created, this value will be replaced when you right-click
the field and select a different value.
\s "ProductStyle"
This tells the field that you want the pop-up list to
display only those AutoText entries that were formatted
with the ProductStyle.
\t "Right-click to select product"
This tells the field to display a specific tooltip when the
mouse pauses over the field.
Additional tips for advanced users:
If you rely on different templates for different types of
documents, make sure you're editing a template when you
complete the procedure described above. At Step 7 and again
at Step 13, instead of pressing Alt+F3, choose Insert |
Autotext | Autotext.... and then set the LookIn list to
your specific template and click Add.
Don't delete the paragraph style created in Step 6. If you
do, your AutotextList field will display ALL off your
Autotext entries, not just the ones of the designated
style.
In Step 7, if you include the paragraph mark that follows
the product name, the resulting Autotext entry will be
inserted into your document with a paragraph mark and the
entry will be formatted with the Style created in Step 6.
For most users, this is not desirable, but if this is what
you want, by all means go ahead and include the paragraph
mark.
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