Looking over all of this again only proves that MS was a bit slack with the introduction of content controls. While their ability to be bound to an XML data node alone makes up for many shortcomings thoses shortcomings are numerous indeed and make working with them like pushing a bowling ball up hill with a broom straw.
The inability to get out the CC dropdownlistentry value property without looping through all of the dropdownlistenties is simply stupid. So is the absence of a ListIndex method. MS's failur to resolve the OnExit bug (in Word 2007) now going on 6 years old is inexcusable.
Another annoying issue is how the Placeholder text for dropdown lists also appears as a list entry. I mean come on "Choose an item" is not really an item of choice. While it can be removed from the list there doesn't appear to be anyway to programatically restore the Placeholder text (at least placeholder text that looks like placeholder text) back to the CC.
I am attaching a document that illustrates four different methods for setting a CC result based on a selection made in a CC dropdown list. It seems to me that the most efficient method is method 3. This method uses data stored in .Value property of the CC.
I also show an example (using method 3) of setting the dropdown list entries of a dropdown CC based on the selection made in another CC dropdown list.
Any comments are welcome. I think I will post this stuff on my website.