Input Mask Wizard CUSTOMIZE symbols

[Alaskadjr1]

Where can I find the symbols (for example: /!Lll; ##- etc), what they
mean and how to input them to create a custom input mask.

Specifically, I am trying to create a custom input mask to enter
dates/times in the following format:

15-Sep-2006 2300

Which is September 15th, 2006 at 11:00 PM.

Thanks,
Alaskadjr1

 

[John Nurick]

Look in Help for "input mask syntax", "inputmask property" or similar
terms. IME input masks usually cause more trouble than they save,
especially in date/time fields, where it's usually much simpler to let
the users type the value any way they choose and then use the Format
property of the field to display it the way you want:
dd-mmm-yyyy hhnn

But there's a problem with time values like "2300". Access recognises
quite a range of date/time formats including
dd-mmm-yyyy (e.g. 15-Sep-2006)
but not
hhnn (e.g. 2300)
An input mask doesn't affect this: it only controls what can be typed
into the field, not how Access interprets it.

Can you get users to include a colon in the time, e.g.
15-Sep-2006 23:00
?

If not, you'll need to either
1) write code that converts what the users type into an Access date/time
value

2) store what the users type in a text field (in this case an input mask
might be useful and convert it to a date/time value when needed.