How To Fill A Textbox With Color In Word 2016 For Mac

Did you know that you can create forms in Word that people can fill out? When you hear about fillable forms, it is almost always related to Adobe and PDF documents because that’s the most popular format. However, Word is also quite a powerful tool and you can use it to quickly create forms that you can either print or send via email, etc.

How to insert color coded drop down list in Word table?

Supposing, I have a table in my Word document, and now, I want to insert color coded drop down list in a column of the table. It means when I select one option from the drop down, the cell color becomes red, and when I select another option in the drop down, the cell color becomes green as following screenshot shown. How could you solve this job in Word document?

Insert color coded drop down list in Word document with VBA code

The following steps can help you to finish this task as you need, first, insert the drop down list, and then apply the color for the drop down. Please do as this:

1. Select a cell in the table where you want to insert the drop down, and then click Developer > Drop-Down List Content Control icon, see screenshot:

2. The drop down is inserted into the specific cell, and then click Developer > Properties, see screenshot:

3. In the Content Control Properties dialog box, please do the following operations:

(1.) Enter the title name into the Title text box;

(2.) Click Add button go to the Add Choice dialog;

(3.) In the Add Choice dialog, type the drop down list item into the Display Name text box.

4. Repeat the Step 3 to insert other drop down list items as you need.

5. After creating the first drop down list, you can copy and paste it to other cells as you need. See screenshot:

6. Then you should apply a VBA code, please hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

7. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, double click ThisDocument from the Project-Project pane to open the mode, and then copy and paste the following code into the blank module.

VBA code: Insert color coded drop down list into table of a Word document:

Note: In the above code, Statusis the title name when you creating the drop down list, and Complete, In Progress, Not Start are the items of the drop down list, you can change them to your own. And you can also change the color to your need.

8. Then save and close the code window, now, when you select one item from the drop down list, its relative color will be filled with the cell, see screenshot:

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• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Hi, this is fantastic! Is there a way to choose from lots of colours?

  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Hi, Sam,
    To apply more color you like, you should use the below code, and change the RGB color to your need:
    Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal ContentControl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
    With ContentControl.Range
    If ContentControl.Title = 'Status' Then
    Select Case .Text
    Case 'Complete'
    .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)
    Case 'In Progress'
    .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(0, 255, 64)
    Case 'Not Start'
    .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(0, 0, 255)
    Case Else
    .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
    End Select
    End If
    End With
    End Sub
    Please try, hope it can help you!
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Hi, I've followed the steps a few times over but the colours don't appear at all?
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Thank you so much for sharing this! However, I'm running into a weird quirk. Sometimes, when I select an item from a drop-down menu and then click elsewhere in the document for it to apply the formatting, it does not work. It selects the proper word from the drop-down menu, but it just stays normal, black text. I have to undo back to before I selected anything, re-select the item from the drop-down menu, and then ONLY click in another drop-down menu to get the formatting to apply. Any ideas on why it's doing this and how I can fix it?
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Hello, is there a way to do multiple color-coded drop downs within one document? Thank you!
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Hi, awesome!!! But is there a way to change the color / text of another cell in the same row but in different column? For example: instead of changing the background of 'Complete', change the background of 'Project-001' . Help me please. Thanks in advance

  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Hi, Jaimes,
    To solve your problem, please apply the below code:
    Note: In the code，the number 1 in the script Cells(1) is the column number of the table, you can chnage it tou your need.
    Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal ContentControl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
    With ContentControl.Range
    If ContentControl.Title = 'Status' Then
    Select Case .Text
    Case 'Complete'
    .Rows(1).Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorRed
    Case 'In Progress'
    .Rows(1).Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorGreen
    Case 'Not Start'
    .Rows(1).Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorBlue
    Case Else
    .Rows(1).Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
    End Select
    End If
    End With
    End Sub
    Please try, hope it can help you!
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Can I color the entire corresponding row instead of just a cell?

  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Hello, Jericho,
    The below code can help you to deal with your problem, please try it:(You can set the RGB color to your need)
    Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal ContentControl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
    With ContentControl.Range
    If ContentControl.Title = 'Status' Then
    Select Case .Text
    Case 'Complete'
    .Rows.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)
    Case 'In Progress'
    .Rows.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(0, 255, 64)
    Case 'Not Start'
    .Rows.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = RGB(0, 0, 255)
    Case Else
    .Rows.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
    End Select
    End If
    End With
    End Sub
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Instead of colors, could we use symbols? like if 'completed' display symbol with character code 252, if not started then symbol with character code 88 etc. can you share the vba code using symbols as display plz?
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Could I modify this code to have it highlight any drop down choice without listing all of them out?
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Hi, Thank you for this. Is there a way of only changing the text color and not the entire cell?

  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Hi, Shannon,
    To change the text color instead of the background color, the below VBA code can help you, please try it, hope it can help you!
    Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal ContentControl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
    With ContentControl.Range
    If ContentControl.Title = 'Status' Then
    Select Case .Text
    Case 'Complete'
    .Cells(1).Range.Font.Color = wdColorRed
    Case 'In Progress'
    .Cells(1).Range.Font.Color = wdColorGreen
    Case 'Not Start'
    .Cells(1).Range.Font.Color = wdColorBlue
    Case Else
    .Cells(1).Range.Font.Color = wdColorAutomatic
    End Select
    End If
    End With
    End Sub

    • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
      Struggling here to apply this as a style rather than a color or shade.
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Could I enter custom colors? (rgb)
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  this worked grate! Thanks. I tried to apply same code to another drop down content box in same document and I'm having trouble. Don't know how to get tweo in the VBA window. I get 'compile error, Ambiguous name detected: Document_ContentControlOnExit'
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  When I exit and reopen the program, I have to reenter the VBA code. How do I make it so that it saves?

  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Hello,
    To save the vba code when opening the file next time, you should save the word file as Word Macro-Enabled Document format. Please try it, hope it can help you!

In Word 2016, the default font for text boxes and shapes is Calibri with font size of 11 points.

To change the default font for text boxes, follow the next steps:

1. Create a new text box in your document: on the Insert tab, inthe Textgroup, click Text Box:

Select Draw Text Box in the drop-down list. Best email client for mac.

2. Apply any formatting you need. You can change the fill color or addan effect,change the text color, style, or weight of a line, or make any other changes:

3. Select the text box, right-click the border, and then clickSet as Default Text Box on the popup menu:

Next time you add a new text box, Word will use the formatting you applied:

See also this tip in French:Comment changer la police par défaut pour les zones de texte dans Word.