Memo in Combobox

[Miss Teacher]

Hi!

I'm an Access beginner.

I need to be able to choose a statement from a memo field (populated from
the user choice of a previous choosebox).

I have used excellent advice from an article here regarding basing one
combobox on another, and have developed a lovely line of them, each depending
on the previous one.

I am creating a teacher's curriculum database for planning, where I need to
choose KLAs, Curriculum Organisers etc, the last combobox needs to choose a
statement from a list of 4 to 10 statements.

The combobox wizard (my previous procedure) does not incorporate the memo
field. I tried to get my box working without it, but the box does not appear
to receive the data.

I then found advice on using a DLookup statement in the Control Source field
that I have managed to suceed in getting to work, however, it is not allowing
me to actually 'choose' from this combo now. It says as I hold the mouse down
to choose in form view, "Control can't be edited: It's bound to the
expression DLookup..." etc.

The contents of this form will need to be saved into a row on another table
for my curriculum planning.

How do I get around this? I need to save the whole memo field to the new
table, and I need to be able to choose a statement from this last combobox.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Klatuu]

It is possible to use a memo field in a combo box, but I don't know if the
wizard gives you that option.
There will be some problems in viewing it in your combo's dropdown, however.
If there is a line feed, you will only see the text prior to the first line
feed. The text will not wrap, so you will only be able to see the first part
of it.
A consideration may be to add a field to your table that contains the memo
field that would be like a "subject" line where a user would understand the
the content based on the subject.

As to storing the memo field in another table. Don't do it! One of the
first rules of database normalization is to not carry duplicate data. The
correct method would be to use an Autonumber primary key field for the table
of memos and include that in your combo's row source. Then store the
selected memo's primary key value in the other table as a foreign key. You
would want it to be the bound column (usually but not necessarily the first
column) of the combo. Then in the combo's Column Widths propertry, set it's
width to 0" and it will not be visible to the user.

 

[Miss Teacher]

Thanks for your quick reply!

Actually, the 'subject' line idea is not dissimilar to what I did with my
previous combobox - it is a type of organiser for the statements of this box
I've had problems with, and has a type of offshoot text box descriptor for
each organiser, which was a simple thing as it was just the adjacent field in
the table (although it, too, appeared to trunicate the display of characters
to 255 - I've read here that a text field shouldn't, so I must be doing
something wrong for that to occur). I might take your advice (except it
means a heck of a lot of cut/paste - a few hundred) into each subject field,
but I'm on holiday anyway!

Thanks for the tip about the multiple storing of fields. I hadn't actually
thought that one through properly - just knew I had to save the selections.
I'm an absolute beginner/non-programmer (only began this 2 days ago). A bit
challenging, but I'm slowly working out where everything is!

I shall probably be back seeking aid in the future - thanks!

 

[Klatuu]

A text field is limited to 255 characters, but a Memo field is not.
But, you will not get the full memo in a Combo column.