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I need help with Repeating Section Content Control

Anonymous
2022-02-02T10:00:31+00:00

I've made a form which needs to have a variable number of a group of fields. Example below:

Item 1
Colour:
Size:
Price:
Item 2:
Colour:
Size:
Price:

I've then set the Repeating Section Content Control on these fields so that the user can click the + button that appears to add a further group, as below for example:

Item 1
Colour:
Size:
Price:
Item 2
Colour:
Size:
Price:
Item 3
Colour:
Size:
Price:

This works fine, however I have two issues I'd like to resolve if possible.

1: When I hover over any of the fields, a bounding box covers the entire table (this is an issue as some of the fields contain rich text content control boxes which become difficult to click into). If I remove the bounding box from the "Properties" menu and set this to "None", it also prevents the + sign from appearing and allowing new sections to be added - defeating the purpose of the whole thing. Is there a way to disable the bounding box without disabling the entire repeating section tool?

  1. When a new section is added, the content in the first field - in the example above Item 1, Item 2 etc - needs to increase sequentially. As it stands this just duplicates the existing field. Is there a way to automate this so that it doesn't need to be manually increased by 1 whenever a new section is added?

Thanks very much

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-02-03T02:33:19+00:00

    I find that the problem is not clicking into the rich text content control, but using the tab key to get out of it. This is due to what I'd consider a design fault by Microsoft: Pressing the tab key in a rich text control inserts a tab character, instead of jumping to the next content control as for all other types of content control. This is also contrary to the behavior of the tab key in a table without content controls, where the tab key jumps to the next cell, and Ctrl+Tab is required to insert a tab character.

    Putting a rich text content control inside a table compounds that fault. Now pressing the tab key inside the rich text content control inexplicably does not insert a tab character, but the Tab key press is passed to the table, so the cursor moves to the next cell. For your example, if the rich text control is in column 2 of the row labeled Colour, tabbing out of the control moves the cursor to the Size label cell. Note that this occurs even when there is no repeating section content control in the table, and no bounding box around the table, so it isn't the fault of the repeating control.

    Correcting this behavior would take revision of the programming of the rich text content control by Microsoft.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-02-02T23:39:29+00:00

    I do not have any difficulty clicked into a Rich Text Content Control when that control is inside a Repeating Section Content Control

    To deal with the numbering, either use a SEQ field for the number (but in that case, you will need to update the fields for it to display the next number), or, better, use a numbered Style for that paragraph using the Define new Multilevel list dialog to define the numbering as shown below

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-04T09:09:58+00:00

    Thank you, that's definitely solved the second point with the numbering.

    I'd still be interested in a solution to the first problem if anybody can help. I'll be providing the form to people aren't the most computer literate, so if I can do anything to reduce the messiness it would be very helpful.

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