Howto create form based on calc table alone?

[HolgerKlene]

For starters I’d like to pimp my Calc table with two options to select the gender and maybe toggle some text formula based on the gender to address the reader as “Mr” or “Mrs”.

Next I need a minimalistic combobox to enter either one of a short list of fixed strings into a specific cell.

In addition, I’m looking for a fancy date-chooser to open up, when I edit a specific cell. I imagine to see one month in a matrix of one week per row, annotated with the week-number, day of week and month-name.

I understand, Calc comes with some form elements, but trying to use one I got lost in selecting a datasource. Can I somehow link some other Calc-table as datasource (prefereably within the very same Calc-document)?

How to do it, without first setting up a whole database? I’d really like this portable, that is have this form mailed to a few people, so they can fill and print it. Ideally I would create a PDF from my Calc document, so they only need an Acrobat-Reader but are still able to fill my form…

[iplaw67]

You shouldn’t need a database for this, just the form controls. Ignore the form control wizard if it is started automatically, as you don’t need it, because it attempts to force you to use a database to bind your form to.

In Form Design mode (you may need to activate this via the Form Design toolbar) draw a list box control on your sheet. Using a right-mouse button click on the control object, choose Control properties from the context menu. In the first tab “General”, set up the general configuration of your control (background colour, name, font, etc.). Under List Entries, enter the different elements making your list of choices. When typing these entries, either press Shift-Return after each entry, or else surround each entry by double-quotation marks and separate them by a semi-colon. Under the Data tab, choose the cell to which the value chosen via the control should apply. If, instead of typing a list under the General tab, you want to reference a range of cells (e.g. on another sheet), you can do in the Data tab under Cell Range instead.

For the date control, proceed in a similar manner, but set up the control to have a dropdown property under the General tab of the control. This should produce a monthly calendar view. Close the Form Design mode and save the Calc form.

[iplaw67]

Not sure about all that working as a fillable PDF though, i.e. if you put the data source for your lists on a separate sheet, that won’t get exported to PDF as the form, so where will the list data come from ?