Hi Cathy... This kind of stuff is what I do. Note...it's can be somewhat complex...but also kinda easy once you get the hang of it. What you need to do is use ADO, ActiveX Data Object to create a connection to the database. You CAN create a dialog box to capture the path information using the File System Object (FSO) and then concatenate that path info into the Connection String. This means the user can find the DB anywhere and it'll work fine. But barring all that, yes, you can hard code the DB. Once you create the ADO connection from Word to the Access DB (or Excel or SQL...or whatever), you then can run queries from Word into the DB to capture a RecordSet...which is like a virtual query result. Once that is created, you work with that RecordSet to pull information to populate your form, document, fields...whatever. And you can also then do the reverse...get info from Word and pass it back into the DB. Just to show you what you CAN do...you can see several examples of projects I've done like this on my solutions site here: http://www.mousetrax.com/Consulting_Solutions.html As for learning how to do it...I have a sample on my site to get you started. Go to http://www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html#autoforms and scroll down to the "Please fill out this form" series. Locate, read, download the sample and review the VBA/ADO code for the # 5 article on Database Connectivity. Two other great resources to master how all this works is to get this book: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html#ado and also hit the W3C schools and read the ADO lessons. You'll find the link to the W3C schools (World Wide Web free training) at this link: http://www.mousetrax.com/Resources.html#learning And, of course, you'll need to know VBA fairly well. * You'll set the ADO reference * Write the connection string to the DB using the Access Jet Engine OLEDB Provider (driver) [Note the Access Provider is in my code. If you want to use Excel, SQL or some other DB source, you can find the Connection Provider strings here: http://www.connectionstrings.com/ * You'll run an SQL query to create a RecordSet (RS) * You'll then manipulate the RS as needed, such as putting it into an array and then populating each item into the combo box using "Do Until RS.EOF" (Do until you hit the end of the record set.) * When the user selects an item, you get the index for that item within Word...OR...you can use the ID from that item in the DB...whichever you prefer...and then do whatever you need with that info, such as put all that info into the document...or previously capture all the info from the form and add it to a current record in the DB or create a new record. All this "add to/pull from" stuff with the DB is in the ADO for Dummies book that got me up and running with this stuff several years ago...in just a few days. But it's taken a couple years to master it all. And...of course, if you prefer not to learn all this stuff...I can do the work for you as a consultant or teach you how to do it. ;-) Hope this helps...good luck! Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified Editor/TechTrax Ezine Help Katrina's Homeless Animals: http://www.mousetrax.com/pets.html Free Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cathy.Evans@xxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 4:12 PM To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mso] Word 2002: VB forms, combo boxes and merging with outside data! What is my best source of learning how to implement linking a word form to a data source for creating a combo box look-up? By word form, I mean a visual basic form. I have a combo box look-up on the form with the following code: With cboProject .AddItem "Project00" .AddItem "Project01" .AddItem "Project02" etc. through about 35 project numbers. Combo box works fine, but each of the 35 project numbers has it's own description. I'm wanting to pass that description text onto the form depending on the value selected in combo box. Can I handle it with some kind of vb merge, and if so, how? OR can I handle it with an if/then type of loop, and if so, where do I begin there? The data source can be anything, doesn't matter if it's access or a word table or excel, or whatever is the best format. The key is it needs to be a relative link because I won't know the server/path situation in the remote location, so I'll give the data source a specific name and keep it in the same directory as the Word vb form. Any ideas of where I need to start? Thanks, Cathy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. 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