Lookup Wizard not displaying all field choices

[Tammy]

Hi,

I realize a bunch of people posting do not like lookup up columns, but i
really have never had a problem with them...until today.

We are creating tables for a new database - eventually, everyone will be
using a form to enter data. Until the form is created, testing data entry
will be done at the table level.

We are trying to create lookup up columns for some of the fields. The source
tables have been created separately already. The problem is this - we start
the Lookup Wizard in table design view and get to select our source. At the
window indicating which fields should be included with the lookup column, the
only field showing is the primary key field (a text data type). We want the
lookup column to include the description field (a memo data type), as well.
We will be storing the primary field, but want the users to also see the
description for that field, to ensure accuracy. These are the only two fields
in the lookup table.

I cannot figure out why the lookup Wizard is not displaying both fields to
choose. This is the first time I've run across this problem, so must be
totally missing something somewhere. Any ideas??

We are using Access 2007 / Vista OS - thanks for any suggestions (but,
please don't tell me to just add a combo box to the form because this should
be working correctly in the table, and the form is not ready for
development.)?

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Tammy

.... you really should ... <g>

I can't tell what you want to have happen. Are you saying you want to show
both columns in your table?

I can't tell how you have the "lookup" field configured ... e.g., SQL, #
columns, ...

Can you create a query against the lookup table and see both columns?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[Tammy]

RE: " .... you really should ... <g>" hahaha - good one!

As I was typing out a response to your question, I thought of something,
tested the database, and solved my problem. Before posting my question, I
looked in Help and the Step-by-Step book and found nothing indicating that
only certain data types were acceptable in a lookup column, but that seems to
be what the problem was. I wanted to use a memo data type field as one of the
displayed fields. When I changed it to a text data type, the field appeared
when using the Lookup Wizard. So, looks like "memo" data type bad, "text"
data type good.

Jeff, thanks so much for taking the time to answer my post, and thanks for
the laugh!