Auto populating a grid

Question

I am not a coder; I have a word document with dialog and check boxes. I have 11 questions that vary slightly like this: ☒ DSM 5 Criteria question #11, Have you ever withdrawn from any substance? ☐ Yes ☐ No Have you ever used a substance to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms? ☐ Yes, ☐ No, Which ones? ☐Alcohol ☐ Sedatives ☐ Opioids ☐ Stimulants ☐ Cannabis ☐ Hallucinogens ☐ Inhalants ☐ Tobacco ☐ Kratom ☐ Other.

I need the appropriate checked boxes to auto populate into a grid at the end of the document?

Answer 1

Hi, Jodi Taylor

The boxes shown as ☒ and ☐ may only be symbols, not interactive check boxes. First, replace them with Check Box Content Controls from the Developer tab. Word supports these controls in fillable forms. Make a checklist in Word

However, Word does not have a built-in option that automatically collects the labels of all checked boxes and places them into a summary grid. Content controls can contain structured information and can be read or updated programmatically, but compiling only the selected answers requires VBA or XML mapping. Working with Content Controls

For a non-coder, it is recommended that you create the grid at the end first, then ask someone familiar with Word VBA to add a small macro that checks each control by its Title and writes the selected answers into the correct cells. Give each box a clear title under Developer > Properties, such as Q11_Alcohol or Q11_Opioids.

Save the finished document as a macro-enabled .docm file. Also note that macros will not run in Word for the web.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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