Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 4

If you're using Word 2003, you have only the Legacy Forms controls appearing. 

If you're using Word 2007 or 2010, you have lots more to choose from; however, we're going to be using the Legacy Forms controls. Here's a rundown of the controls.

• The Controls, which appear in the group, are Active X controls that are used for Web forms...not the subject matter of these posts.

When you click the Legacy Tools button, a drop-down with yet more buttons appears:

• The Active X Controls at the bottom are used for Web forms and require the use of macros to work properly...not the subject matter of these posts.
• The Legacy Forms controls at the top are the controls we will be using to create forms. These are the lowest level of controls and are backward compatible to Word 2003. Considering backward compatibility is a good idea because genealogists frequently use older versions of software. 

To insert a control, click in your document where you want to insert the control, and then select the control from the Legacy Forms control. Nothing too exciting happens. A gray block or a gray check box appears. Each control has properties that you must complete in order to make the field useful. 

To display the properties for a control, right-click on the field to display a pop-up, and select Properties. In subsequent posts, we'll look at the properties for the following types of controls. 

• Text Box
• Check Box
• Drop-Down List

The remainder of the Legacy Forms buttons have other uses that we'll discuss later.