Switch to the Developer tab on the ribbon.

Let’s look at the available content controls on the Developer tab.

Unlike the old Active X controls used with VBA, content controls in newer versions of Word aren’t a security risk and are compatible with Open XML Automation. You should now see the Developer tab on the ribbon, and now you’re ready to add form controls to Word documents. Check Developer in the last of tabs and then click OK.Make sure that Main Tabs is selected in the menu on the right below Customize the Ribbon.In the Options dialog box, click Customize Ribbon on the left.Switch to the File tab on the ribbon and click Options on the left.

When used alongside the ability to restrict editing in a document, as I demonstrated a couple of weeks ago on Petri in An Office 365 Tip on Restricting Editing in Word 2016, content controls are especially useful in ensuring that only specific parts of a document can be modified.īefore you can add content controls to a document, you need to enable the Developer tab in the ribbon. Using a form in a Word document may seem like a feature that’s only useful for creating questionnaires, but content controls such as text fields, checkboxes and drop-down menus can also be used in collaboration scenarios where you want to share a document but guide colleagues on where they should provide input. Date Picker Content Control in Word 2016 (Image Credit: Russell Smith)

Word rich text content control date