The Lookup Wizard, Do I Hate It?

[wdsnews]

ok. So, this week the Lookup Wizard inflicted me with my first experience
of it. I'm talking about the Lookup Wizard that appears in the Table Design
interface.

Here's the good news, you can bring up a table, and your field has a drop
down and second level reference automatically working. The bad news is it
presents the second level lookup everywhere, for everything. But sometimes
I just want to see the index actually recorded in the table.

If I build a query, and I just want the actual index rather than its
translation, how can I get that?

Is there a way to undo the automation without losing the data?

 

[Wayne-I-M]

Yes - simple. Don't use a look up in a table. Use a form to select the data
you want from a table and then store the primary field of that record (the
bound column). Use the column width setting to display the the text of
numbers or whatever the users would expect to see.

If you want use can use awizard to create the dropdown in the form or you
can create a small query and base the drop down on that (you have mor control
over it this way).

Good luck

 

[John W. Vinson]

ok. So, this week the Lookup Wizard inflicted me with my first experience
of it. I'm talking about the Lookup Wizard that appears in the Table Design
interface.

Here's the good news, you can bring up a table, and your field has a drop
down and second level reference automatically working. The bad news is it
presents the second level lookup everywhere, for everything. But sometimes
I just want to see the index actually recorded in the table.

If I build a query, and I just want the actual index rather than its
translation, how can I get that?

Is there a way to undo the automation without losing the data?

You can (and should!) display the actual table contents by opening the table
in design view; select this field; and use the Lookup tab on the field
properties window (in the lower left of the screen in 2003 and before, not
sure where it is in 2007). Change the "Combo Box" to "Textbox" and you'll see
the numeric ID instead of the lookup.