Hello, everyone.

I work for a small business and would like to streamline our proposal process by using user-completed forms. However, I am running into some issues with certain programs and wanted to know if any of the experts on here had some insights/suggestions.

I just need a letter, addressed to our customers by name and home address, which itemizes their order and gives a total cost at the end. BUT, I would like the form to be as simple to use as possible, since there may be a few people with little computer skill using the forms.

Basically, the forms will have fields that contain choices on the order form. For example: One sentence in the letter might read: "...paint color to be: ______", where the blank could be one of five different colors, chosen by the customer and then included by us in the letter.



I tried creating the letter in Microsoft Word 2010 using drop-down fields, but some item lists may or may not be included in each letter. So, if the customer didn't order a particular item, then whoever is filling out the form will have to manually delete the drop-down menu field, which will be too much work for them, I think.

I could also use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, include drop-down menus for the fields and then Mail Merge into a Word document, but then I would need a new Excel file for each letter, or have to teach my co-workers how to Mail Merge only single rows (not likely to happen with them).

We, unfortunately, cannot afford Microsoft Access, which I know can do this rather efficiently.

So, does anyone have some good suggestions on how I can create a simple letter template that allows the user to make some choices and auto-generate the fields as needed?

The programs I have access to are: Microsoft (2010) Word, Excel, One Note and Outlook.

I thank you for any help!