List boxes

[Bob Griendling]

I've read the help info several times but can't understand something basic:

I want a field "tax category" that limits my choices to several tax
categories that my account wants data in. For example, "Professional dues"
for all memberships. So I want to create the "tax category" field so I
limit my choices (one being Professional dues" and eight or ten others). I
can create a "list box" field but I don't know how to create the list to go
into it so when I hit the list box "arrow down" I see only the categories
I've established. Obviously, at the end of the year, I want to report my
expenses in those tax categories.

Any help would be appreciated.

Bob

 

[John Vinson]

I've read the help info several times but can't understand something basic:

I want a field "tax category" that limits my choices to several tax
categories that my account wants data in. For example, "Professional dues"
for all memberships. So I want to create the "tax category" field so I
limit my choices (one being Professional dues" and eight or ten others). I
can create a "list box" field but I don't know how to create the list to go
into it so when I hit the list box "arrow down" I see only the categories
I've established. Obviously, at the end of the year, I want to report my
expenses in those tax categories.

First off... if you're entering data directly into your Tables using Table
Datasheet view... DON'T. Tables aren't designed for the purpose; they're
designed for *storing data*, and table datasheet view is useful for design
and debugging, and VERY little else!

Then, you need a way to enter and edit data. Use a Form for this purpose.

On your Form you can use all sorts of tools to make data entry easier.
Listboxes (and Combo Boxes) are very valuable members of this toolkit. They
*get* information from one table (usually, see below) and *put* one value
into another. In your case, create a little Table with two fields - an
autonumber ID (CategoryID) and a text category (e.g. ID 12 might be
"Professional Dues"). Your tax table would have a Long Integer CategoryID
field.

On your Form you would create a Listbox or Combo Box using this Categories
table; the combo box or listbox wizard will walk you through setting this up.
What the user will see is the text category; but what gets stored in your
table is the "Bound Column" - in this case the numeric category ID.

Hope this gets you a step further!

John W. Vinson/MVP