How do you create an input mask for a field which will have a car
registration that will have two letters, then two numbers and then
three letters? For example, AB22 ABC.
In my opinion, just don't. Input masks have serious compatibility problems
with any other Windows control in any other application that your users
will ever use. The trick to providing useful Windows UIs is to give them
things that they are used to, not new and nonstandard stuff. Remember that
the only job that an Input Mask does is to restrict the keystrokes that a
user can make -- it doesn't protect the data.
You might want to use a Validation Rule instead, or else (or as well as)
the BeforeUpdate event. The advantage of the latter is that you can correct
minor mistakes intelligently (upper case, removing unwanted spaces).
Finally, UK car registration codes are a great deal more structured than
you have suggested up there, as you probably know, so only a BeforeUpdate
event will be able to check it properly.
Hope that helps
Tim F
