Calendar Drop Down

[Tom Rowan]

I use Access 2000 and I've created a form for data entry which works pretty
good but I want to have a drop down calendar for the date input field. I
just can't seem to figure out how to do it and it's driving me crazy! Help!

 

[Amar Kapadia]

Hi Tom:

I'm going to throw out a preliminary answer for you, but we'll both wait
together for some proper responses. I, too, wish to implement a dropdown
calendar so I am glad you asked. Anyway, I don't believe there is any
natively built into Access to allow this. Once you are in Form design mode,
and have all your controls available, you will have to select the button
called "More Controls". Then from the list select Calendar Control 8.0. I
did all this before writing to you, but I got a crash using Access XP.
This led me to this site:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=287472

Apparently, that tells us that the Calendar Control has to be installed via
Add/Remove Features of Office XP. I don't have the CD, but maybe this post
might give you some directions and/or other replies may. I know you are
using Access 2000 and not Access XP so you may not get the error. Good
Luck.

Amar

 

[DanK]

The Active X 8.0 control is not a DROP DOWN control. If
you mean DROP DOWN then you're talking about a combo box.
If, for example you want to be able to list the next 31
days from today in the ComboBox, then simply create a
query which lists the next 31 dates:

1) Create a table with one date field in it.
2) Enter as many dates as you will ever need, say one day
for the next 5 years, that's 365 X 5 entries, or about
2,000. (An update query can help automate this step)
3) In the criteria of a query based on the table, enter:

=Date()

and then make the query list only the next 31 days using
its TOP VALUES property set to 31.
4) Sort the query "Ascending"
5) Base your ComboBox control's ROW SOURCE on this query
(or SQL) and there you go! The next 31 days are listed
and this will work for the next 5 years! (using 1856
entries.)

You can also list PAST dates by changing the Criteria to
something like =<Date().

Then... in 5 years, they'll have to call you up to modify
the database and that's when you hit them for BIG BUCKS
because you don't work for them anymore! That IS,
assuming they will STILL be using your program! This
reminds me of the time I built a database and programmed
it to halt on a future date of about 5 years with a
message that the system was now unstable and required an
upgrade and a program modification. Of course they had to
come to ME to modify it. Now one else could make sense of
the spaghetti! Who needs those green lines of comments
anyway!
And if you did your job right, hopefully, they'll be
highly dependent on it. And the modification that was
required was simply removing the two lines of code that
halted the system and displayed the message box. Heh,
heh, heh!

 

[Amar Kapadia]

Dan:

Interesting strategies on database development and the 5-year plan !
Thank you. Regarding the Drop-down calendar situation, I wasn't sure what
the Calendar Control 8.0 provided as it seems to crash for me. Nonetheless,
I think I know what Mr. Rowan is looking for and there is a control (or
something) out there that displays a little mini calendar (with the current
date circled in red) when you click on the dropdown. If you use Microsoft
Money...you can see the control in action in that application. I want the
same thing...but apparently calendar control 8.0 is not it. So not sure
where this control is or if it is even freely available.

Also, the question remains does this control become embedded within access
or does each user need the OCX control on their machine?

Amar

 

[Jim/Chris]

The drop down calendar I like is in "More Controls"
Microsoft Date and Time picker control 6.0 (SP4)


Jim

 

[Tom Rowan]

Jim, thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for. It worked just as I
hoped with a drop down calendar and a red circle around today's date.

Thanks everyone for your help, this is a great news group!

Tom