Posts Tagged ‘field’

Contact Linking in MS Outlook 2007

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

In earlier versions of MS Outlook, most forms had a field on the lower right corner called Contacts, in which you could link a contact to an item, which would, in turn, show up on the Activities tab.

A lot of folks used this item and a lot didn’t. For those of you who DID use it, you may think it isn’t available in version 2007, but it IS available.  You just have to know where to find it.

  • Click on Tools | Options | Contacts Option button.
  • Add a check to the option under Contact linking to make it appear on forms.

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Create a Drop-Down List in MS Word Forms

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Lots of times there is a need to create a form within MS Word wherein the form is e-mailed to a colleague or a client and they fill out the form and send it back to you.

It can be very tedious to sort through the information when users insert data that you are not specifically looking for and that is where drop-down lists come in very handy, because you can create a drop-down list with specific items for selection.

To create your drop-down list, follow the steps below:

If your form template has already been created, open it and remove protection from the form.

If you are just creating your form, right-click on an empty spot on your toolbar which will open the list of Toolsbar.  From there, click on the Forms Toolbar, which will open a floating toolbar.

Click the Drop-down Form Field button.

Double-click the field to open the dialog box.

Type each choice for the drop-down list and click Add.

Make sure you arrange them in the order you prefer.

Click OK.

The form will display the typical arrow next to the field. When you click it the choices are displayed for you.

Don’t forget that you will not be able to use the form until you protect it!

You can use these same techniques to create an online form for the Web. In this case, however4, use the tools on the Web Tools toolbar to creatre the form fields, which has many of the same controls as the Forms toolbar.

Go ahead and experiment with it. I think you will find that it is fun to create forms and not difficult at all!

Answer Interrogatories Easily in MS Word

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Any legal secretary will tell you how tedious it can be to continually type in Interrogatory No. 1 or Response 1, and so on through thirty or more Interrogatories or Requests for Production of Documents. If you work in a larger firm that has a document assembly package in place or one that employs a scanner it makes your life a lot easier when it comes to this task. But for the small, boutique firm or solo practice it can still be a pain.

This is where AutoText comes in handy in MS Word. You can combine AutoText with another feature called AutoNumbering to make this whole process go a lot more smoothly for you with way less keystrokes and a lot less time. You can make the phrase an AutoText entry. The key to doing this is to enter the required number using a Field.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Type the phrase you are going to use (i.e. Interrogatory No.), including the and bold attributes.
  2. Click on Insert | Field.
  3. Use the drop-down list under Categories and select Numbering.
  4. The Field name you want is AutoNumLgl.
  5. The Field properties is 1, 2, 3
  6. Check the Field Option for Display number in legal format without a trailing period.
  7. Click OK.

Don’t forget to turn off the underlining and bolding attributes before you type in the colon!

Now, Select the entire phrase and Add it as an AutoText thusly:

  1. Click on Insert | AutoText  New or use the shortcut Alt + F3.
  2. This will open the AutoText dialog box.
  3. Click Show Autocomplete Suggestions.
  4. Under AutoText Entries, key in Inte or something that will be intuitive for you.
  5. Click OK.

You can now start keying in the Word Interrogatory and tap the Enter key and keep right on on going!

Makes like a lot simpler doesn’t it?