add values to dropdown selections and calculate

[guyhs]

I work for a regional jail. When an inamte is booked in, they must go through a classificaiton process to insure they are placed in the appropriate housing unit. In a nutshell, the officers will ask a series of scored questions. The total of the score will determin the most appropriate classificaiton for the inmate. I want to create a form that will help streamline this.



Bascially, they will ask questions like:

• severity of current charges (choices: Low=0, Moderate=2, High=5, highest=7)
• serious offense history (choices: None/Low=0, Moderate=1, High=4, Highest=7)
• escape history (choices: choices: No escape=0, Walkaway/Attempted from minimum security or not return from authorized absence=3, Escape/Attemped from medium/maximum=7

etc. to come up with a custody score. There are seven questions. Questions 1-3 need a total and then section 1-7 need a total. There are some places for comments. I have attached a scan of the form.

Many thanks up front for anyone who can assist.
Guy Short, IT Director
Meherrin River Regional Jail

[macropod]

Hi Guy,

Your post has no attachments, so I can only guess what the desired output might look like. However, you could use a Word docuument with formfields, such as the attached.

[guyhs]

Thanks for the assistance! My apologies for the upload. It should be on this reply. What you gave me looks good! I would love to know how you did it, I just cant' seem to figure it out. I was thinking a macro, but I didn't see anything under the macro tab. I would just want to know this incase the criteria or scale changes. PLus I need to addd a few more questions.

Thanks again for your help!
Guy

[macropod]

Hi Guy,

There are no macros in the document. Instead, I've used dropdown formfields, whose properties have been set to 'calculate on exit' and a series of formula fields.

If you remove the document's form protection, then press Alt-F9, you'll be able to see the coding I've done with the formula fields. Similarly, right-clicking on any of the dropdown formfields and choosing 'properties' will let you see how they're configured.

Except for the signature (and, perhaps, the date), all of the variable inputs on your form can be managed with either dropdown formfields or text formfields. You can use checkbox formfields for the 'special management issues'. No macros are required for any of what's there.

When you've had time to study what I've done and start implementing it with your form (which will possibly end up being just one page), I can help you with things you might get stuck on. I anticipate item IIIA being one such area.

[guyhs]

Thanks for the mock up. It works well. The formula you added really blows me away!! More complicated then I anticipated. I think I may can make the IIIA part work in Excel through conditional formating. I am just not sure if I can make the rest work,will have to see. I will also try to work on the Word example you have given me.

[macropod]

hi Guy,

I could probably have simplified the formulae a bit, via the use of additional bookmarks, and would be inclined to do so for the fully-fledged form, but I didn't have access to that when I created the example.

Part IIIA can be done in Word too. As I said in my last post:

I can help you with things you might get stuck on. I anticipate item IIIA being one such area.

[cyelley]

Is there a way to get the fields to update automatically without having to exit the form. You can update field code manually, but is there a way to have it calculate as soon as the drop down field is completed? Thanks.

[macropod]

Not without exiting the formfield. You don't have to exit the form, per se, just the formfield that you want to update.