Drop-down, listbox or what to use for this?

[mscertified]

My application has keywords maintained in a tree-structure. Whenever the tree
structure is modified, I create a flattened version of the tree. This table
has four columns, the key and 3 keyword 'tiers', T1, T2 and T3.
My problem is how will the users select keywords? They need to do this in
the minimum number of keystrokes. They need to be able to select at any tier
e.g. there may be: T1=Software, T2 = MSOffice, T3 = Powerpoint
In a conventional, drop down, if the user entered 'Pow', Powerpoint would
not be listed because its not at the beginning. Ideally, when the user enters
'Pow', I'd like it to list any record where either T1, T2 or T3 commences
with 'Pow'. Whatever mechanism I use, it also has to be able to list the
existing selections. And there may be multiple selections per record.
Anyone got any bright ideas?

 

[KARL DEWEY]

I would use one field for all keywords separated by spaces.
Then use criteria like this --
Like "*" & [Enter search] & "*"

 

[mscertified]

Thanks for the response.
That would not give me what I want since I need it to match only on the
beginning characters of each keyword.
Also, what type of control would you use and how would you get it to display
the matches?

I would use one field for all keywords separated by spaces.
Then use criteria like this --
Like "*" & [Enter search] & "*"

--
KARL DEWEY
Build a little - Test a little

My application has keywords maintained in a tree-structure. Whenever the tree
structure is modified, I create a flattened version of the tree. This table
has four columns, the key and 3 keyword 'tiers', T1, T2 and T3.
My problem is how will the users select keywords? They need to do this in
the minimum number of keystrokes. They need to be able to select at any tier
e.g. there may be: T1=Software, T2 = MSOffice, T3 = Powerpoint
In a conventional, drop down, if the user entered 'Pow', Powerpoint would
not be listed because its not at the beginning. Ideally, when the user enters
'Pow', I'd like it to list any record where either T1, T2 or T3 commences
with 'Pow'. Whatever mechanism I use, it also has to be able to list the
existing selections. And there may be multiple selections per record.
Anyone got any bright ideas?