Thank you for the tip on wdContentControlType enumeration in the VBA ref. I did find a few examples that clarified things for me.

One question:
Where does the text "Choose an item." for the placeholder text (PHT) come from? I would like to be able to control what appears as PHT. For example, if I choose Option 2 from the Master, I'd like to set the PHT to "Select an Element".

Thank you so much for your help!