drop down box issues

[fishqqq]

I have a drop down box that is giving me some issues i can't seem to
get my head around.

First off it works well - user clicks the dropdown box and a list of
items is displayed. For some reason though when the user begins keying
the item he wishes it stops working once the user reaches a certain
point in the word.

eg. if the user is trying to key the item "Microsoft Inc." and there
is are two items in the list ("Microsoft Inc" & Microhard Inc") the
dropdown box will stop after the word Micro is entered. As soon as the
the next letter (s or h) is entered it stops working instead of
letting the user key the full word if he wishes.

Is there a setting to fix this? my other drop down boxes seem to work
correclty


Secondly... i'd like a button to go to the control (dropdown box) ,
and open it so the list of options are viewed and the user can begin
keying - instead of having the user go to the drop down box, click the
button then begin keying.

I've created a macro to have the button go to [find co] (dropdown box)
but i don't know how to get the list to appear without having the user
actually click it

any help is greatly appreciated

Steve

 

[Access Developer]

It's helpful to use accurate descriptions. The Control in Access to which
you probably refer as
a "drop down" is the Combo Box control.

I cannot recreate the situation you describe running Access 2003 under
Windows XP.

Maybe you could help me understand why it would be easier for the user to
click a separate button to move to the Combo Box and have the list dropped
down, than for the user to click the down-arrow on the Combo Box itself?
Both seem to me to be one-click actions.

However if that's what you want to do, a macro that I created (and tested,
because the only macros I've used in the real world in the last ten years or
so were AutoExec macros) that works for me (in the environment I described
above) is:

GoToControl with a Control Name of [find co]
Send Keys with a key code of {F4}

If your form is specified as Data Entry, to be used only for entering new
records, you could put that in the OnCurrent event, so the user would not
have to click an extra button.

I also note that Microsoft cautions that SendKeys can produce unexpected
results, depending on the environment and the state of your
computer/software when you issue it, and should be used with care.
--

Larry Linson, Microsoft Office Access MVP
Co-author: "Microsoft Access Small Business Solutions", published by Wiley
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