help with input mask

[Guest]

I am learning Access through an online class. I am doing an exercise where
you type the word telephone as the field name, then change the field size of
the data type to 14, save it, and then you are supposed to click in the Input
Mask box of field properties and three little black dots are supposed to
appear to the right and I'm supposed to click on them to launch the Input
Mask wizard. Except when I click in the box, there are NO black dots. This
is driving me crazy. Can anyone help me get the three black dots to appear?
I went to a tech chat room and was told that the wizard might not have been
installed when I installed Access, so I uninstalled and reinstalled it with
the wizards...but no black dots appeared. HELP!

 

[Vincent Johns]

I didn't see an obvious way to turn that wizard off, so I think the
people in the chat room had the right idea. Did you try doing this
exercise with a new, blank database on your computer? Can you access
Access on some other computer to see if your database file behaves the
same way there?

For this one exercise, you could probably just type in

!\(999") "000\-0000;;_

for telephone numbers, but at some point you'll need to get the wizard
fixed. (If I'm correct that your copy of Access is defective, other
functions might also be missing!)

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[Guest]

I just tried with a blank database and the dots didn't come up. How do I get
it fixed? Will a regular computer repair place know how to do it?

Eliza

 

[Vincent Johns]

I just tried with a blank database and the dots didn't come up. How do I get
it fixed? Will a regular computer repair place know how to do it?

Eliza

It's probably not a computer hardware problem, so I think not. (But it
might not hurt to ask; just be sure to go to someone reputable.)

It does occur to me to wonder which version of MS Access you're using.
The special "..." menu may not have been included in some earlier
versions. I use Access 2000 and Access 2003, don't remember what Access
97 or earlier did in that case. If you *are* using an earlier version,
perhaps you have nothing to worry about; you'll just need to type the
formatting information into the field yourself.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[Vincent Johns]

If you see an icon on your taskbar that has a wand and stars on it, try
selectign that. It turns wizards on and off.

That's true some of the time, but in this context in Access 2000, the
wand-and-stars button is labeled "Build", and it does the same thing
that the "..." button does -- runs the Input Mask Wizard.

However, maybe the OP's database doesn't have either one. It may be
that changing some of the options using the Tools --> Customize menu to
turn on the "Build" button would also activate the "..." button to turn
on the Input Mask Wizard.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

 

[tina]

to add a bit to Vincent's suggestion: in design view (of a table or form)
you can click on the InputMask property line and press F1. this will take
you to the Help topic, which gives you all the info you need to write your
input mask manually - you don't have to rely on a wizard.

(btw, you can use the same F1 trick to go to the Help topic of most, if not
all, table/field/form/report/control properties from the object's design
view.

hth