Sean,
Another approach is to not worry about the ID at all. Bind the combo box to
the ID (Bound Column = 1), but display the name in the drop-down (Set Column
Widths to 0", x", where x is large enough to display the longest name). Sort
by the company name, e.g., set the Row Source to:
SELECT Vendors.VendorID, Vendors.CompanyName FROM Vendors ORDER BY
Vendors.CompanyName;
You may also wish considering a single table for all Companies--vendors,
customers, reps, etc., and use a field to distinguish them. Your forms can
then be based on queries that select the appropriate subset. If you have
companies that are both a supplier, a rep, a customer--as is common in my
business--rather than use a single field, you can use a detail table that
would allow a company to be coded to more than one type.
CompanyTypes
------------------
CompanyID
CompanyType
Hope that helps.
Sprinks