Help creating a hyperlink drop down list between documents

[SconnieGuy91]

Hello everyone, I hope you can help me out with this, I'm not even sure if it is possible. I am using Word 2016 for the record.



So what I want to do is create two separate documents (we will call them Doc1 and Doc2) with the ability to hyperlink text from Doc1 to Doc2 in a drop down list format.

In Doc1, I want to be able to create a continuous list of names/addresses. Example:

John Smith
123 Foster Lane
New York, NY 12345

John Doe
987 North Ave
Miami, FL 98765

In Doc2, I want to create a form that has fields that will pull the text from Doc1 in a list format. Example:

Name/Address Field (will have a drop down list that will give you the option of selecting either the John Smith or John Doe name/address).

Is there any way for me to create something like this? Please excuse my terminology and lack of knowledge, I only know the basics of Word HaHa

If you guys need any other info please let me know. Thank you for all your help!

[macropod]

Are the data in these two documents always to be linked, so that updating Doc1 updates Doc2? Or is Doc2 just supposed to get the data to populate its own dropdown from a list in Doc1?

If it's the latter, rather than using a separate document (though that is possible), you might consider holding the dropdown data in an Excel workbook and retrieving them from there. This is especially useful if you already have the data in an Excel workbook that you use for other purposes. See, for example: https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post46287
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...html#post97965

[SconnieGuy91]

Thanks for your reply!

I think the better option would be for Doc2 to just get the data to populate its own dropdown list. Ideally, I would prefer to use a second word document rather than an excel sheet but if that is not possible then I will have to settle with using an excel spreadsheet (since the people I work with are generally used to working with Word and have pretty much zero knowledge of excel).

I would just really like to make it a more efficient process rather than having people continuously type the same stuff in over and over again while still keeping my co-workers within a general comfort zone of theirs (word).

Do you have a link as to how I could do this with using word documents instead of 1 word document and 1 excel spreadsheet?

Thank you again for your help and if all else fails then I will have to give people a crash course in excel.

[macropod]

If all you're doing is just using the same dropdown details for new documents, you'd do better to create a template with the dropdown and its contents already there, together with whatever other standard content those documents contain. That way, all you need do is create a new document from the template and select the relevant dropdown entry.