G
Grover Park George
We have uncovered an unexpected quirk in a combo box in a shared database in
A 2003.
When we open the database from one PC this combo box works normally, but
when a second user opens it from his PC, we see this problem, which I'll
explain in a second.
The db is split, FE/BE, both mdbs in a shared folder on my PC. In this case,
the second user is the only other person to ever use this particular, and
the FE resides on my PC. I could get permission to create a shared folder on
his PC for this FE, and we may end up doing so. In the meantime, though, I
can't see any reason for the combo box to behave differently.
To the problem.
The combo box has two columns, one for the primary key of the row source and
the other consisting of a concatenated string from related tables.
The Auto Expand property for this combobox is set to "yes". When the user
starts typing into the combo box, it is supposed to expand, attempting to
match existing values, until the user finds and accepts a match or until no
match is found. In the latter case, that SHOULD cause the combo box to drop
the highlighted selection, leaving only the inital few letters typed by the
user.
Basically, the inconsistent behavior is the following. On the second user's
PC, auto expand matching appears to work normally most of the time. In some
cases, however, when the user has typed in one or two letters, the combo box
seems to automatically select whatever record is visible at that point as
the "match", even if it is not the one the user wants. If the user continues
to type, what happens is that the next fewletters are forced into the middle
of the string, rather than overtyping the highlighted portion of the match.
It's almost as if the user had tabbed off the combo box at that point and
then tabbed back in, even though the cursor remains in the combo box and
seems to operate normally.
I've been banging on this issue off-and-on for a couple of weeks. The user
has learned that, when this happens, he has to move the cursor to the last
position in the combo box and backspace to erase the bogus characters until
he gets back to the point where he can start auto expand again, so he has a
workaround, painful as it may be.
I can't make any sense of it and I'm getting a little paranoid about
supernatural powers taking over the keyboard on his PC. I've sat at his desk
and duplicated the behaviour, so I know it's not a quirk in his typing..
I realize this is sort of hard to grasp from a general description, but if
anyone has any ideas where I should look, please share.
Thanks.
George
A 2003.
When we open the database from one PC this combo box works normally, but
when a second user opens it from his PC, we see this problem, which I'll
explain in a second.
The db is split, FE/BE, both mdbs in a shared folder on my PC. In this case,
the second user is the only other person to ever use this particular, and
the FE resides on my PC. I could get permission to create a shared folder on
his PC for this FE, and we may end up doing so. In the meantime, though, I
can't see any reason for the combo box to behave differently.
To the problem.
The combo box has two columns, one for the primary key of the row source and
the other consisting of a concatenated string from related tables.
The Auto Expand property for this combobox is set to "yes". When the user
starts typing into the combo box, it is supposed to expand, attempting to
match existing values, until the user finds and accepts a match or until no
match is found. In the latter case, that SHOULD cause the combo box to drop
the highlighted selection, leaving only the inital few letters typed by the
user.
Basically, the inconsistent behavior is the following. On the second user's
PC, auto expand matching appears to work normally most of the time. In some
cases, however, when the user has typed in one or two letters, the combo box
seems to automatically select whatever record is visible at that point as
the "match", even if it is not the one the user wants. If the user continues
to type, what happens is that the next fewletters are forced into the middle
of the string, rather than overtyping the highlighted portion of the match.
It's almost as if the user had tabbed off the combo box at that point and
then tabbed back in, even though the cursor remains in the combo box and
seems to operate normally.
I've been banging on this issue off-and-on for a couple of weeks. The user
has learned that, when this happens, he has to move the cursor to the last
position in the combo box and backspace to erase the bogus characters until
he gets back to the point where he can start auto expand again, so he has a
workaround, painful as it may be.
I can't make any sense of it and I'm getting a little paranoid about
supernatural powers taking over the keyboard on his PC. I've sat at his desk
and duplicated the behaviour, so I know it's not a quirk in his typing..
I realize this is sort of hard to grasp from a general description, but if
anyone has any ideas where I should look, please share.
Thanks.
George