Auto complete in Tables - Field Data

[dmbb]

Is it possible to Auto complete data in Fields in a Table
I have a basic database for Craft Group Working days, with Area names in
first field -ie Dartford, Tunbridge Wells; 2nd field -Classes - ie Festive
Beaded Christmas Tree Decoration, (and 8 more long names) which need to be
printed on the Label Reports using Queries
Is there any method that will work at Auto Completing in Table fields
Do hope someone knows
Thanks

 

[tina]

no "good" method of doing this in a table, no. but then, you shouldn't be
entering data directly in tables anyway - that's what forms are for. if you
don't have already, suggest you create an Areas table and a Classes table,
as

tblAreas
AreaID (primary key, Autonumber)
AreaName
<each area, "Dartford", "Tunbridge Wells", etc, will be a record in the
table.>

tblClasses
ClassID (pk, Autonumber)
ClassName
<each class will be a record in the table.>

and set up the Working days table to link to the two above "parent" tables,
as

tblWorkingDays
WorkArea (foreign key from tblAreas, data type Number, size Long Integer)
WorkClass (fk from tblClasses, Number, Long Integer)
<include whatever other fields you need in this table, of course.>

recommend you read up on normalization principles, so you'll understand how
the relationships work. for more information, see
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html#DatabaseDesign101.
base a form on tblWorkingDays. bind the Area and Class fields to combo box
controls. the RowSource of each combobox should correspond to the
appropriate "parent" table - tblAreas or tblClasses. (recommend you read up
on combo box controls in Access Help, so you'll understand how the
properties work.) as you enter a record in the form, when you begin typing
an Area name in the combobox, the name will autofill from the droplist; and
the same will happen in the Class combobox.

hth

 

[SteveM]

Combo boxes have a sort of Auto Complete feature wherby a matching item in
the list is highlighted as you type text. If these fieds are suitable for
selecting options from a list then this will probably work for you.

If you need this facility in any other control, it is possible but you will
have to write code to do it or obtain code that someone else has written. It
is not a built-in Access feature.

Steve

 

[dmbb]

Thanks to Tina and SteveM for your suggestions
I designed the form Tina, and tried using Combo Boxes Steve, but I can't
get it to work as I need it to, keeps altering all the classes to the same
group
I've never done any Linking as Tina mentioned so can't really understand the
link's wording
All I really wanted was to do away with my continual Copy & Paste instead of
typing all those long group names
Guess I'll have to C & P but Thanks for trying to help me. I much
appreciate you both for giving up of your time to help

 

[dmbb]

Spent last evening trying the Combo Boxes on Forms and YES it has worked for
me just as you said, I was forgetting to link to the Properties for the Auto
links
I'll know what to do next time
Many thanks SteveM