Word 2010 has multitude of Form Content Controls which enables user to instantly create a simple form for taking; input from others, distributing it as e-survey, making a questionnaire, etc. From available Form Controls list, you can insert checkboxes, drop-down lists, combo boxes, text panes & labels to create an intriguing user entry form without using any designated tool. This post is a detailed walkthrough of creating simple user entry form using Word 2010 intrinsic Form Content Controls.
To begin with, launch Word 2010. Form controls are bundled under Developer tab, which is by default hidden. To make it apparent, head over to File menu, click Options, from in left pane click Customize Ribbon, and from right pane enable Developer check-box. Click OK to to see Developer tab on the ribbon.
Now we will start off with creating some basic form controls. Fill out document for asking name, gender, marital status, occupation and other desired info you want to take in.
Navigate to Developer tab to add form controls. Place insert cursor where you want to insert form control and under Controls group, click the desired control button. As for aforementioned document, we will be inserting Rich Text Control Content adjacent to title Name.
It will insert a Rich Text form control.
Now for Gender and Marital status, we will be writing two options and adding checkboxes for each option. For inserting checkbox, from Controls group, click Checkbox content control button.
For inserting Occupation info, we want users to have multiple options to choose from, so we will insert Drop-Down List Control. From Controls group, click Drop-down list button.
Now insert Email option, first we will insert a text box and then a drop down list. Head over to Insert tab and from Text box option, click Draw Textbox.
Draw a text box next to Email, as shown below.
Insert a drop-down list adjacent to previously added text box.
For Date of Birth options, we will be adding a Calendar control. Place an insert cursor next to Date of Birth text and from Controls group, click Date Picker Content Control.
For comments/feedback we will simply draw a text box for providing confined place for writing comment/feedback.
The basic forms controls have been added into document. Now we will move to form control customizations, in which we will be populating each form control with desired option.
For adding Occupation options in drop-down list, select the form control and from Controls group, click Properties.
It will bring up Content Control Properties dialog, click Add to start populating drop-down list.
In Add Choice input dialog, enter the choice and click OK. For adding more, click Add in Content Control Properties dialog.
Once added, click drop-down button to view the inserted options.
For Email drop-down list, enter list of email addresses options in a same way as we did it for populating Occupation options.
For picking out date, click drop-down button, it will show you date picker tool to choose date from.
For customizing the date format, select the date picker form content control and click Properties in Controls group. Now from Content Control Properties dialog, under Date Picker Properties, specify date format, and under Calendar type, you can choose an option from list of available calendar types. Once configured, click OK to continue.
That’s it for now, you can make out a huge e-survey form, questionnaire, etc by easily inserting multiple form content controls. We have demonstrated creating a simple user entry form, now you can distribute it for taking input, filling out databases, and for conducting e-surveys, etc.
You can also check out previously reviewed guides on How to embed Excel Spreadsheet in PowerPoint 2010 and How to apply Stylistic Sets and Ligatures in Word 2010.
