Contains paid promotion

How to add Control Elements in just a few steps
in Word 2016

With Microsoft Word you can not only comfortably create letters, lists and articles with tables of contents, but also go one step further, and Set up your own forms using controls.

But where are these controls, and how can you put them into your document?

By default, they are hidden, and must first be unlocked.

For more information on using Word 2016 controls without frustration see our article.

Subscribe here for free and anonymous RSS feed

How to add Control Elements in just a few steps in Word 2016

With Microsoft Word you can not only comfortably create letters, lists and articles with tables of contents, but also go one step further, and Set up your own forms using controls.

But where are these controls, and how can you put them into your document?

By default, they are hidden, and must first be unlocked.

For more information on using Word 2016 controls without frustration see our article.

Content:

Enable controls in Word.
Control check box in Word.
Insert drop-down box in Word.
Activate processing protection.

Subscribe here for free and anonymous RSS feed

1. Enable controls in Word 2016.

In the default installation of Word 2016, you will not have access to the controls, so we’ll need to enable their visibility first.

To do this, click on the tab in an open Word document:

“File” – “Options” – “Tap Ribbon“.

And put the hook there in “developer tools“.

See picture (click to enlarge)

From now on, each Word document has the new Developer Tools tab, which gives you access to various controls.

In the default installation of Word 2016, you will not have access to the controls, so we’ll need to enable their visibility first.

To do this, click on the tab in an open Word document:

“File” – “Options” – “Tap Ribbon“.

And put the hook there in “developer tools“.

See picture:

From now on, each Word document has the new Developer Tools tab, which gives you access to various controls.

2. Add control check box in Word.

In our first example, we would like to insert the classic “checkbox” in our document to create a form.

To do this, we first position the cursor at the desired position in the document, and then select the check box in the Developer tab.

See picture (click to enlarge)

After we have positioned our checkboxes, we can also adjust them a bit by right-clicking on “Properties” above the check box in the context menu and making various settings there, such as:

e.g. “activated by default“, “the size“, or even a “help text”

which is automatically displayed as a completion help to the future user when pressing F1.

See picture (click to enlarge)

In our first example, we would like to insert the classic “checkbox” in our document to create a form.

To do this, we first position the cursor at the desired position in the document, and then select the check box in the Developer tab.

See picture (click to enlarge)

After we have positioned our checkboxes, we can also adjust them a bit by right-clicking on “Properties” above the check box in the context menu and making various settings there, such as:

e.g. “activated by default“, “the size“, or even a “help text”

which is automatically displayed as a completion help to the future user when pressing F1.

See picture:

3. Insert dropdown box in Word 2016.

In our 2nd example, we make it even more comfortable for the later user and offer a drop-down list to choose from.

This is especially useful when there are many selection points available, and you do not want to obstruct your document with check boxes.

To do this, reposition the cursor at the desired position and select “Drop-down list control” from the Developer tools.

See picture (click to enlarge)

In order to fill our drop-down list with content from which to later select a user, we have to switch to “Design Mode“, and then right-click over the element in the context menu “Properties“.

See picture: (click to enlarge)

Here we can customize our dropdown box freely, and provide various choices as you wish.

Simply click on “Add” in the properties and enter the options you want to include later.

Finally, all you have to do is confirm with “Ok” and quit “Draft mode“.

See picture: (click to enlarge)

In our 2nd example, we make it even more comfortable for the later user and offer a drop-down list to choose from.

This is especially useful when there are many selection points available, and you do not want to obstruct your document with check boxes.

To do this, reposition the cursor at the desired position and select “Drop-down list control” from the Developer tools.

See picture:

In order to fill our drop-down list with content from which to later select a user, we have to switch to “Design Mode“, and then right-click over the element in the context menu “Properties“.

See picture:

Here we can customize our dropdown box freely, and provide various choices as you wish.

Simply click on “Add” in the properties and enter the options you want to include later.

Finally, all you have to do is confirm with “Ok” and quit “Draft mode“.

See picture:

4. Activate Word 2016 processing protection.

In order to finally receive a document in which our controls can take over their function (for example as a form), we have to activate processing protection as the final step.

Click on the tab:

“Review” – “Restrict Editing“

And there on “Processing restrictions (filling in forms)” – “Apply protection now“.

Note:
It is best to assign a password to prevent unauthorized editing of the form.

See picture (click to enlarge)

Then simply save the document as a normal Word file (docx).

When opening the file later, you can only fill in the form fields that you have set up for it.

Subscribe here for free and anonymous RSS feed

In order to finally receive a document in which our controls can take over their function (for example as a form), we have to activate processing protection as the final step.

Click on the tab: