Work around for more than 25 items in drop-down menu

[brent chadwick]

Does anybody have a work around for having more than 25 items in a drop-down menu? I have a macro that I need to write that has 62 items. Suggestions?

[macropod]

Word formfield dropdowns have a design limit of 25 entries. You cannot circumvent that.

Word content control dropdowns do not have such a design limit.

However, formfields and content controls should not be used in the same document. They were not designed to be used that way and trying to do so is a known source of usability problems.

[brent chadwick]

So there are no other alternatives? How about a macro that has three drop-down selections that split the 62 into three parts and then uses cases for the choices?

Would cascading drop-downs work? Just spitballing here-thanks Paul.

[macropod]

Since I have no idea of how the dropdown options might relate to each other, it's impossible to say what alternatives you might have. One thing is almost inevitable: any solution that enables a workaround will require the use of a macro.

[brent chadwick]

I have several macros that insert simple text for county and state. The problem is that New York State has 62 counties. Here is the macro for Massachusetts: when the macro is fired the drop-down menu says "Massachusetts Counties." You can select the county you need and it inserts the county name and state. Here is the code for Massachusetts-

Option Explicit
Sub Massachusetts()
'Mass State/County Macro
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim Rng As Range, FmFld As FormField
Set Rng = Selection.Range
With ActiveDocument
  Rng.Collapse wdCollapseStart
 'Dropdown Menu for Massachusetts Counties
  Set FmFld = .FormFields.Add(Range:=Rng, Type:=wdFieldFormDropDown)
  With FmFld
    .Name = "MassDD"
    .EntryMacro = ""
    .ExitMacro = "MassachusettsCC"
    .Enabled = True
    With .DropDown.ListEntries
     .Add Name:="Massachusetts Counties"
    .Add Name:="Barnstable"
     .Add Name:="Berkshire"
      .Add Name:="Bristol"
      .Add Name:="Dukes"
      .Add Name:="Essex"
      .Add Name:="Franklin"
      .Add Name:="Hampden"
      .Add Name:="Hampshire"
      .Add Name:="Middlesex"
      .Add Name:="Nantucket"
      .Add Name:="Norfolk"
      .Add Name:="Plymouth"
      .Add Name:="Suffolk"
      .Add Name:="Worcester"
    End With
  End With
  With Rng
    .End = FmFld.Range.End
    .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
  End With
   .Protect Type:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields, NoReset:=True
  End With
  Set FmFld = Nothing: Set Rng = Nothing
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Sub MassachusettsCC()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim Prot As Variant, Rng As Range, FmFld As FormField, Bookmark As Bookmark, Range As Word.Range, lngIndex As Long
Const Pwd As String = ""
With ActiveDocument
  Prot = .ProtectionType
  If .ProtectionType <> wdNoProtection Then
    Prot = .ProtectionType
    .Unprotect Password:=Pwd
    Set Rng = Selection.Range
    Select Case .FormFields("MassDD").Result
        'Case For Barnstable County
      Case "Barnstable"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Barnstable") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Barnstable County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Berkshire County
      Case "Berkshire"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Berkshire") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Berkshire County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Bristol County
      Case "Bristol"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Bristol") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Bristol County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Dukes County
      Case "Dukes"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Dukes") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Dukes County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Essex County
      Case "Essex"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Essex") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Essex County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Franklin County
      Case "Franklin"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Franklin") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Franklin County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Hampden County
      Case "Hampden"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Hampden") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Hampden County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Hampshire County
      Case "Hampshire"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Hampshire") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Hampshire County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Middlesex County
      Case "Middlesex"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Middlesex") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Middlesex County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Nantucket County
      Case "Nantucket"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Nantucket") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Nantucket County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Norfolk County
      Case "Norfolk"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Norfolk") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Norfolk County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Plymouth County
      Case "Plymouth"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Plymouth") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Plymouth County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Suffolk County
      Case "Suffolk"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Suffolk") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Suffolk County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
        'Case For Worcester County
      Case "Worcester"
      If InStr(Rng.Text, "Worcester") = 0 Then
      With Rng
            .Text = "Worcester County, Massachusetts, "
            .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
           End With
           Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
           End If
      Case Else: Rng.Text = Chr(211)
    End Select
End If
End With
Set FmFld = Nothing: Set Rng = Nothing
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

I would guess that with New York the 62 would have to be divided somehow-

[macropod]

So why are you using formfields instead of content controls?

That aside, you could have a county selector with 25 items, the last of which has 'page 2' and, when that item is selected, a macro clears the 'page 1' list and displays the 'page 2' list. The 'page 2' list would have 'page 1' as its first item (so you can go back) and a 'page 3' entry as the last item. Etc. The same approach could be taken at the state level, since you have more than 25 states to deal with. See attached.

[brent chadwick]

You would have to school me on content controls as I am clueless as to what they are, how they work and where to use them.
In the example you gave me, I 'm guessing that for each of the pages I would have an exit macro, and then use cases for the text formation of each county/state? Thanks for your help Paul-

[macropod]

In the example I posted, there is a single 'on exit macro', named 'Counties' that manages all the dropdown options.

For content controls, have a look at some of these examples:

Dependent Dropdown Content Controls
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post77762
and, for multiple levels of dependency:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...tml#post132696

Cascading Dropdown Content Controls
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post94603

Dependent Text Content Controls
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post46903
and, for different elements from a selected item to be output to different content controls, see:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...tml#post120392


Dropdown Content Control Population from Excel
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post46287

Creating and Tallying Mutually-exclusive Checkbox Content Controls
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post33489
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...tml#post107008