How to Navigate Through Records in Alphabetical Order

[Ennead]

I have a membership DB with a Family_tbl and a Person_tbl. A form/subform
shows the family info and all the persons belonging to that family. As I add
members, the Family table is getting increasingly out of alphabetical order,
which makes it difficult to find a particular family.

How can I get the navigation buttons to scroll through the records in
alphabetical order, instead of primary key order? I've tried sorting the
table, but that has no effect on the form.

As the DB grows, I can see navigating getting more difficult, even with
alphabetical order; so an extension of this question would be, is there a
better way to do find specific records or information?

I'm using MS Access 2003.

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 20:14:01 -0800, Ennead

Good question. I am assuming your form is currently bound to your
table, that is, the RecordSource of your form is Family_tbl.
Create a new query, select this table, and use the Sort row to set the
sorting options you want. Then bind your form to this query.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have a membership DB with a Family_tbl and a Person_tbl. A form/subform
shows the family info and all the persons belonging to that family. As I add
members, the Family table is getting increasingly out of alphabetical order,
which makes it difficult to find a particular family.

A table HAS NO ORDER period.

How can I get the navigation buttons to scroll through the records in
alphabetical order, instead of primary key order? I've tried sorting the
table, but that has no effect on the form.

Base the form, not on a Table, but on a Query. You cannot (usefully) sort a
table; you can sort a Query, and the query will be editable and a much better
recordsource for your form.

Open the form in design view; view its Properties. Find the "recordsource"
property (first on the Data tab). Click the ... icon by it and accept Access'
offer to create a query. Choose "Ascending" on the lastname (or whatever field
you want to sort by); close the query window and accept Access' offer to save
the recordsource.

As the DB grows, I can see navigating getting more difficult, even with
alphabetical order; so an extension of this question would be, is there a
better way to do find specific records or information?

You can use the Toolbox Combo Box Wizard to create a combo. Be sure the magic
wand icon on the toolbox is selected, create a new combo box, and use the
option "Use this combo to find a record on the form". Post back if you need
help with this.