'Find' on Memo field

[Susan]

One of my users told me she is doing a 'find' on a memo
field. This memo field if VERY important and I am
concerned that doing a find on it may cause a problem.

Any feedback? Thank you.

 

[John Vinson]

One of my users told me she is doing a 'find' on a memo
field. This memo field if VERY important and I am
concerned that doing a find on it may cause a problem.

Any feedback? Thank you.

A Find by itself won't cause any problem. What kind of problem are you
anticipating?

I'd suggest giving this user a Query with criteria on the field, just
for her convenience.

 

[Susan]

Thanks. This is the first field in a series of tabs and I
previously had problems with the users having the
data 'disappear'. I was never able to replicate the
problem and was able to retrieve the lost data from
backups. I guess being a large memo field and doing
a 'find' on a word, strikes me as dangerous. I did create
queries for them to search on specific data and they truly
should not be searching this memo field. When time
allows, I will have a meeting and determine what other
search criteria they need so they will use the queries
more often.

thank you.

 

[John Vinson]

Thanks. This is the first field in a series of tabs and I
previously had problems with the users having the
data 'disappear'. I was never able to replicate the
problem and was able to retrieve the lost data from
backups.

Sounds to me like a case of PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard
And Chair). If the Form allows edits, it's possible that (frex) the
user selected the whole field and (intentionally or otherwise) pressed
teh Delete key or icon.

I guess being a large memo field and doing
a 'find' on a word, strikes me as dangerous.

It shouldn't be dangerous *just to find the data*. If these users
aren't allowed to edit the data at all, you can set the Form's
AllowEdits property to False; if they can edit other fields but not
this memo, set the textbox's Enabled property to False, Locked to True
to make this field uneditable.

I did create
queries for them to search on specific data and they truly
should not be searching this memo field. When time
allows, I will have a meeting and determine what other
search criteria they need so they will use the queries
more often.

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

When you search using the built-in Find dialog, the default behaviour is
that the contents of the field on which you are searching is highlighted. I
had one client ask us to change this behaviour, because they reckoned they
were loosing data because of 'elbows on the keyboard' - someone searches on
the field, the field is highlighted, and the person puts their elbow on the
space bar!

We gave them a form that did the search and used the SelStart and SelLength
properties to place the insertion point at the end of any existing text.