Select Drop Down Form Field with first letter   

Does anyone know if it is possible to programme a drop down form field so 
that the user can select their choice by typing the first letter of the word? 

I have a document that collates responses from form fields using VBA to 
collate them, and it works well and does what I want (cross fingers).  
However, it's so annoying for the users to have to tab onto each field and 
then click on the arrow to select the response they want.  It would be great 
to make them more intelligent, for example after tabbing on the the field the 
user could type Y and the word Yes would pop up, for example like it does in 
Access!  Is there any way of doing that?  Unfortunately my own intelligence 
doesn't stretch that far.

Thanks for all your help.
Aehan

date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:48:00 -0700   author:   aehan

Re: Select Drop Down Form Field with first letter   

aehan wrote:
> Does anyone know if it is possible to programme a drop down form
> field so that the user can select their choice by typing the first
> letter of the word?
>
> I have a document that collates responses from form fields using VBA
> to collate them, and it works well and does what I want (cross
> fingers). However, it's so annoying for the users to have to tab onto
> each field and then click on the arrow to select the response they
> want.  It would be great to make them more intelligent, for example
> after tabbing on the the field the user could type Y and the word Yes
> would pop up, for example like it does in Access!  Is there any way
> of doing that?  Unfortunately my own intelligence doesn't stretch
> that far.
>
> Thanks for all your help.
> Aehan

Normally, after tabbing to the field, you could press Alt+down arrow to open 
the dropdown list instead of clicking the arrow. Then typing a letter will 
select the first entry that starts with that letter.

If you put this macro into the template:

Sub DDentry()
    SendKeys "%{DOWN}"
End Sub

and assign the macro as the entry macro for the dropdown field, it will 
automatically simulate pressing Alt+down arrow, so tabbing or clicking into 
the field will open the list, and all you need is the letter to choose an 
entry.

-- 
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP        FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so 
all may benefit.

date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:08:16 -0400   author:   Jay Freedman

Re: Select Drop Down Form Field with first letter   

Hi Jay

Thank you very much, that really helps a lot!

Have a great weekend
Aehan

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

> aehan wrote:
> > Does anyone know if it is possible to programme a drop down form
> > field so that the user can select their choice by typing the first
> > letter of the word?
> >
> > I have a document that collates responses from form fields using VBA
> > to collate them, and it works well and does what I want (cross
> > fingers). However, it's so annoying for the users to have to tab onto
> > each field and then click on the arrow to select the response they
> > want.  It would be great to make them more intelligent, for example
> > after tabbing on the the field the user could type Y and the word Yes
> > would pop up, for example like it does in Access!  Is there any way
> > of doing that?  Unfortunately my own intelligence doesn't stretch
> > that far.
> >
> > Thanks for all your help.
> > Aehan
> 
> Normally, after tabbing to the field, you could press Alt+down arrow to open 
> the dropdown list instead of clicking the arrow. Then typing a letter will 
> select the first entry that starts with that letter.
> 
> If you put this macro into the template:
> 
> Sub DDentry()
>     SendKeys "%{DOWN}"
> End Sub
> 
> and assign the macro as the entry macro for the dropdown field, it will 
> automatically simulate pressing Alt+down arrow, so tabbing or clicking into 
> the field will open the list, and all you need is the letter to choose an 
> entry.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Jay Freedman
> Microsoft Word MVP        FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
> Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so 
> all may benefit. 
> 
> 
>

date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:32:01 -0700   author:   aehan