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This Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page will show you how to link a pair of content control drop-down lists. Linked drop-down lists allow you to set the list entries that display in a dependent (secondary) content control based on the selection made in a primary content control as shown in the following illustrations:

The first step in creating linked content control drop-down lists is building the master content control and defining its properties:

• Open a new document. Select the "Developer" tab and using the "Controls" group, select and insert a Drop-Down List content control.
• Using the same group, click the "Properties" command button to open and display the "Content Control Properties" dialog.
• Using the dialog, define the control general and drop-down list properties as depicted in the illustration below
• Click "OK" on the dialog to close the dialog.

Next create the secondary (dependent) content control and define its properties:

• Select the "Developer" tab and using the "Controls" group, select and insert a Drop-Down List content control.
• Using the same group, click the "Properties" command button to open and display the "Content Controls Properties" dialog.
• Using the dialog, define the control general and drop-down list properties as shown below:
• Click "OK" on the dialog to close the dialog.

• Using the "Developer" tab, "Controls" group, click the "Design Mode" button control to display the design mode.
• Set/verify the placeholder text in the primary and dependent (secondary) content control as shown below.
• Click the "Design Mode" control again to edit the design mode.

The final step is to add the VBA procedures that establish the link between the content controls. The code is added to the ContentControl_OnExit event procedure that you create in the "ThisDocument" class module of the VBA project.

• If you are following along in your own document and to make the illustrations more meaningful, save your document a Linked CCs (simple).docm.
• Open the VB Editor (ALT+F11). If not displayed, press Ctrl+r to display the "Project Explorer" panel.
• Using the "Project Explorer" panel locate and expand the "ThisDocument" module of the project.

• Paste the following code in the VB Editor code window:

Option Explicit
Dim i As Long
Private Type ListData
  arrFood() As String
End Type

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnEnter(ByVal CC As ContentControl)
  'Delete next line if you are using Word2010 exclusively
  If Application.Version < "14.0" Then Main.SetDeveloperTabActive
  Select Case CC.Tag
    Case Is = "Food Group"
      With ActiveDocument.SelectContentControlsByTitle("Food Item").Item(1)
        For i = .DropdownListEntries.Count To 2 Step -1
          .DropdownListEntries(i).Delete
        Next i
       .DropdownListEntries(1).Select
      End With
      CC.DropdownListEntries(1).Select
  End Select
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal CC As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim tData As ListData
  'Delete next line if you are using Word2010 exclusively
  IF Application.Version < "14.0" Then Main.SetDeveloperTabActive
  Select Case CC.Tag
    Case Is = "Food Group"
      tData = GetLEData(CC)
      With ActiveDocument.SelectContentControlsByTitle("Food Item").Item(1)
        For i = .DropdownListEntries.Count To 2 Step -1
          .DropdownListEntries(i).Delete
        Next i
        For i = 0 To UBound(tData.arrFood)
          .DropdownListEntries.Add tData.arrFood(i)
        Next i
        .DropdownListEntries(1).Select
      End With
  End Select
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

Private Function GetLEData(ByRef oCCPassed) As ListData
  For i = 1 To oCCPassed.DropdownListEntries.Count
    If oCCPassed.Range.Text = oCCPassed.DropdownListEntries(i).Text Then
      GetLEData.arrFood() = Split(oCCPassed.DropdownListEntries(i).Value, "|")
      Exit For
    End If
  Next i
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Function
End Function

Note: The code provided above contains a call to a separate procedure that forces the "Developer" tab to display if used with Word 2007. This is required to work around the bug described in Content Controls. The code involved is too long to post here so it is included in two separate standard code modules ("Main" and "Accessibility") in the demonstration file that you can download at the end of this tips page. The document file also contains examples of several methods that you can use to set value of one or more plain text content controls based on the selection made in a content control drop-down list.

That's it! I hope you have found this tips page useful and informative.  Download the demonstration document I used to prepare this tips page here:  Linked CCs

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This page was last updated on December 02, 2012

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