Iâ??m a physician (radiologist) and also involved with a company in the medical
information systems arena, DR Systems. Inc, based on San Diego. Iâ??m not a
software engineer and something less than a beginner when it comes to VBA. I
wonder if you can help me with the following problem or direct me to a
resource that can.
Iâ??ve been creating templates for radiologists who read MRI, CTâ??s and other
imaging exams, and have been experimenting with form automation. In the
world of health care information systems, we have some limitations. Often
reports must be handed to other information systems using only HL-7 text
strings. So diagrams, buttons, tables, etc are usually not acceptible.
Also, locking forms can be tricky, since physicians usually want to be able
to both use an automated form, but also change or delete just about anything.
Finally, the reporting doctor doesnâ??t really want it obvious to the reader
that he used a form.
Iâ??ve learned to still automate report forms using macrobutton fields, hidden
text, toolbar button-activated macros.
With this background, hereâ??s my issue. Iâ??d like to be able to create the
equivalent of a drop-down menu or listbox such that when you select an item,
the selected item appears as text, meaning that you donâ??t continue to see
evidence of the dropdown. In some cases, Iâ??d like to create the drop down as
part of a macro.
For example, Iâ??d like to show text like: â??The left ventricle is normal.â??
If the doctor clicks this text, it should change to:
â??The <<?>> segment of the left ventricular myocardium shows <<?>>.â??
Where the <<?>> includes a list of available choices. Iâ??m getting close,
but havenâ??t figured out how to add the drop down choices without running into
issues related to form locking. For example, I canâ??t seem to lock just the
drop down. If I had continuous section breaks befor and after the drop-down,
MSWord creates a new line. Also, Iâ??m struggling to create a macro that
itself writes and drop down menu (again, the issue isnâ??t so much inserting
the menu, but dealing with the locking/unlocking). Iâ??ve tried dealing with
the control toolbox as an alternative, but not successfully.
Also, I use hanging indents in my templates, but run into an issue when the
text is sent to other information systems. A hanging indent doesnâ??t result
in any sort of HL-7 message, so the formatting is incorrect when displayed on
other systems. Iâ??d love to figure out a way to add a VB instruction in my
templates that automatically adds a tab whenever there is a soft line break.
Can you help or point me to a resource that can? Iâ??m using MSWord2003, but
would jump to 2007 if itâ??s easier.
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MAR