Change form action based on drop down selection

Question 1

Your code is missing the part to get the selected item from the selectbox.

document.form1.recipient.selectedIndex

The rest should be ok and i have created a Fiddle

Question 2

I'm guessing as to your full intent, but I think that the best way to accomplish what you're doing here would be via php on the server side. Have the form direct to one particular page and then using your server-side language redirect to the proper url. For example, if you're using php do something like this:

client-side (html)

(note how the action property of the form is one fixed location)

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="./form-handler.php">
    Please choose a dept:<br/>
    <select name="recipient" id="recipient" size="1">
        <option value="" selected="selected">Select</option>
        <option value="dept_Advertising">Advertising</option>
        <option value="dept_Public_Relations">Public Relations</option>
        <option value="dept_Manufacturing">Manufacturing</option>
        <option value="dept_Brands">Brands</option>
        <option value="dept_Holdings">Holdings</option>
        <option value="dept_Vendor_Inquiry">Vendor Inquiry</option>
        <option value="dept_Other_Inquiry">Other Inquiry</option>
    <select>
    <input type="submit">
</form>

No javascript required!

server-side (php)

form-hander.php:

<?php
$recipient = $_POST['recipient'];

//Based on the value of the $recipient value redirect to the correct page 
//using the header function

switch($recipient) {
    case 'dept_Manufacturing':
        header('Location: ./manuf_contact.php'); exit;
    case 'dept_Brands':
        header('Location: ./brands_contact.php'); exit;
    case 'dept_Holdings':
        header('Location: ./holdings_contact.php'); exit;
    //... etc, etc
}

Question 3

On your on change function, you can obtain your currently selected element using:-

var currentValue = $("#recipient option:selected").val();

And then apply these if checks as you specified on this currentValue var as shown below:-

if(currentValue == "dept_advertising"){
$("#form1").attr("action",customURL);
}

Question 4

Try this

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="/">
Please choose a dept:<br/>
      <select name="recipient" id="recipient" size="1" onChange="javascript:chgAction()">
      <option value="" selected="selected">Select</option>
      <option data-action="/adv_contact.php" value="dept_Advertising">Advertising</option>
      <option data-action="/pr_contact.php" value="dept_Public_Relations">Public Relations</option>
      <option data-action="/manuf_contact.php" value="dept_Manufacturing">Manufacturing</option>
      <option data-action="/brands_contact.php" value="dept_Brands">Brands</option>
      <option data-action="/holdings_contact.php" value="dept_Holdings">Holdings</option>
      <option data-action="/vend_contact.php" value="dept_Vendor_Inquiry">Vendor Inquiry</option>
      <option data-action="/misc_contact.php" value="dept_Other_Inquiry">Other Inquiry</option>
      </select>

<input type="submit">
</form>

<script>
function chgAction(){
    $('#form1').attr({'action':$('option:selected').attr('data-action')});
    $('#form1').submit();
}
</script>

Question 5

You could also just use the actual form action URLs as the option values and use a simple one line onchange attribute without any additional JS:

<form method="post" name="form1">
  <select id="form_action" name="form_action" onchange="document.form1.action = this.value;">
    <option value="https://url1.com">URL1</option>
    <option value="https://url2.com">URL2</option>
  </select>
</form>

Tested and working in Firefox. May possibly benefit from some measures to make it more cross-browser compatible.

Question 6

Replace:

function chgAction(form1){...}

in

chgAction = function(form1) {....}

Code will work but it is not the ultimate dream. Better to use something like that:

(function(){
var form = document.querySelector('#form1'),
    select = form.querySelector('#recipient'),
    action = {
        'jordachedotcom_Advertising': '/adv_contact.php',
        'dept_Public_Relations': '/pr_contact.php',
        'dept_Manufacturing': '/manuf_contact.php',
        'dept_Brands': '/brands_contact.php',
        'dept_Holdings': '/holdings_contact.php',
        'dept_Vendor_Inquiry': '/vend_contact.php',
        'dept_Other_Inquiry': '/misc_contact.php'
    };

select.addEventListener('change', function () {
    var el = this, value = el.value;
    if (action[value]) {
        form.action = action[value];
    }
}, false);}());

Like jQuery:

(function($){
var form = $('#form1'),
    select = $('#recipient'),
    action = {
        'jordachedotcom_Advertising': '/adv_contact.php',
        'dept_Public_Relations': '/pr_contact.php',
        'dept_Manufacturing': '/manuf_contact.php',
        'dept_Brands': '/brands_contact.php',
        'dept_Holdings': '/holdings_contact.php',
        'dept_Vendor_Inquiry': '/vend_contact.php',
        'dept_Other_Inquiry': '/misc_contact.php'
    };

select.on('change', function () {
    var el = $(this), value = el.val();
    if (action[value]) {
        form.attr('action', action[value]);
    }
});}(jQuery));