Invisible text box in form

[Anna]

How can I make the text boxes to be invisible when the box is empty of value?
For example: I have listed number of tasks for different WO, for WO#1-10
tasks listed, WO#2-only 5 tasks, so I want that the text boxes for tasks 6-10
will not be visible when WO#2 displayed in the form.
Thanks.

 

[Access101]

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you might not have a one to many
relationship set up for the WorkOrders.

Do you have a main table "WorkOrders", and then a relationship to
"WorkOrderDetail", so that the WorkOrderDetail could contain 10 records, or
10 Million records?

 

[Anna]

yes, I do have.

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you might not have a one to many
relationship set up for the WorkOrders.

Do you have a main table "WorkOrders", and then a relationship to
"WorkOrderDetail", so that the WorkOrderDetail could contain 10 records, or
10 Million records?

 

[Access101]

I guess I'm not fully understanding the situation.

I was picturing a WO table (with WO_ID as the primary key) that is the Main
form. Then a WOD which is the subform. And that these forms are linked by the
Key WO_ID.

So assuming this is a new db, with no info in it yet ...

Upon opening the WO form, you would see an empty WOD subform: that is to
say, a form without any records in it yet.

As soon as you enter any text in the WOD, it "recreates" a blank record line
right below the one you are typing in (which would then be used to enter
record 2, at which time, it creates a place to enter record 3).

When you enter Task one (record 1), there are no other records or text boxes
or tasks showing, because you've only entered one record.

If you enter Task Two (record 2) there are only records one and two (text
boxes one and two showing) because you've only entered two records.

In this way, you can enter millions of tasks, one right after the other, and
never have to delete or add text boxes ... they are just created
automatically as you add a new record.

Sorry if I'm missing this or insulting your intelligence.

 

[Anna]

I'm sorry, I must have been giving you not the full info:
I have main tbl that contain-WO#-primary key, WO name and the list of tasks
that relaited to each WO. In each Wo a different num of tasks. So in the tbl
I have a total 36 colomns that cover all the tasks by their number- for
exm:wo#1 has 5 tasks listed and WO# 10 filling all the tasks colomns (has 36
tasks). So when I do autoform I have 36 text boxes created for the
tasks(lable+field). What I want is that when WO#1 displayed-that text boxes
10-36 will not be displayed(lable+field) because they are empty, and when
WO#10 displayed I could see all the 36 tasks(lable+field).
I hope that is better explanation.
Thanks
Anna

 

[Access101]

Let me explain using a database for Contacts and their PHONE numbers.

It would seem logical to create a single table using the following fields:

Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone

Guess what, all of a sudden you realize that you have both a home phone and
a business phone. So you go into your single table and you add another field
called Business phone. Subsequently, you now have to go into all your
queries, forms and reports and also add this new field.

A week later you get someone with a fax, and now you end up adding another
field to the main table. The next day you realize the person has two business
phones, an alternate and a cell phone. I'm sure you can see the problem.

One way to solve this is to have two tables: a Main Contact with CONTACTID,
and a secondary table Phone with foreign key CONTACTID.

Now you can (as I said in a previous email with you) have 10 or 10 Million
phones. And if contact 1 only has 1 phone, you don't have to get rid of the
other 9,999,999 text boxes, cause they never existed in the first place,
because all of them are stored as records (or not) in the Phone table.

The same thing with work orders. Each work order is like the Contact Table,
in your case it has WO_ID.

All the Tasks are stored in the Task table (I think I referred to it as the
WO_Detail table) with foreign key WO_ID. So now, when WO #1 has only 1 Task,
and WO #5 has 1,000 tasks, you dont' have to delete any text boxes, because
all the tasks exist as a new record in the secondary table.

Helpful?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Anna]

Thanks I think I got my mistake.

Let me explain using a database for Contacts and their PHONE numbers.

It would seem logical to create a single table using the following fields:

Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone

Guess what, all of a sudden you realize that you have both a home phone and
a business phone. So you go into your single table and you add another field
called Business phone. Subsequently, you now have to go into all your
queries, forms and reports and also add this new field.

A week later you get someone with a fax, and now you end up adding another
field to the main table. The next day you realize the person has two business
phones, an alternate and a cell phone. I'm sure you can see the problem.

One way to solve this is to have two tables: a Main Contact with CONTACTID,
and a secondary table Phone with foreign key CONTACTID.

Now you can (as I said in a previous email with you) have 10 or 10 Million
phones. And if contact 1 only has 1 phone, you don't have to get rid of the
other 9,999,999 text boxes, cause they never existed in the first place,
because all of them are stored as records (or not) in the Phone table.

The same thing with work orders. Each work order is like the Contact Table,
in your case it has WO_ID.

All the Tasks are stored in the Task table (I think I referred to it as the
WO_Detail table) with foreign key WO_ID. So now, when WO #1 has only 1 Task,
and WO #5 has 1,000 tasks, you dont' have to delete any text boxes, because
all the tasks exist as a new record in the secondary table.

Helpful?

Thanks,
Michael