Show Status Bar text in text box?

[Kurt]

I have a data entry screen with about 70 controls, mostly
combo boxes. It's used to help administer a phone survey.
As the user tabs through each combo box, a corresponding
survey question appears in the Status Bar (by use of the
Status Bar Text property). For questions which are too long
for the Status Bar (and therefore get cut off), I've used
the ControlTip Text property, so the entire question
appears in a the control tip. The user reads the question
to the interviewee, selects the answer from a drop down
box, and then tabs to the next control/question, and so on.

The challenges with this is that the text is sometimes
hard to read in the status bar, or the control tip
sometimes covers up the control's drop down list.

So, instead of using these properties, I would like to have
the question (which is the same as the field's description
in the table, if that helps), appear in a separate control
(text box) permanently placed somewhere on the form. So,
when the user tabs into the combo box for question 8, the
full text of question 8 appears in a big text box (possibly
at the top of the form) for easy reading. When the user
tabs to the combo box for question 9, the full text of
question 9 appears in that same big text box. And so forth.

What's the best way to go about progamming this? Should I
use a subform? Do I need to create a table which lists all
70 survey questions, and base the text box on the table and
which ever combo box has the focus? Or any easier way
would be to program things so that the text box shows the
description or status bar text property (which I've
already entered for 70 fields) of the field which has the
focus.

Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks.

Kurt

 

[SteveS]

It sounds like you already have the questions in the
Status Bar Text of each combo box. Maybe this will do what
you want.

Create an unbound text box in the *Form* header (or
footer) a couple of lines long by the width of the form.
I'll call it Text2, and the name of the text box label
I'll call Label6.

In the lostfocus event of each combo box put:

Me.Text2 = Null

(This will clear the text in the text box.)

If the first combo box is named Combo2, then in the
gotfocus event put:

Me.Text2 = Me.Combo2.StatusBarText

Do this for each combo box.

If you want the combo box to auto drop down, also add:

Me.Combo2.Dropdown


If you want the label to show which question is being
displayed, add:

Me.Label6.Caption = "Question 1"

To clear the label, in the lostfocus of the combo box also
add:

Me.Label6.Caption = "Waiting" (or whatever you want)

HTH

Steve