Drop Down List with free text option

[jcbhydro]

Pat H,

I have repeated in 3 separate posts that I was looking for a method to input free text into a 'Member Name' field, NOT repeat NOT into a 'Member ID' field.

jcbhydro.

 

[Pat Hartman]

And I have told you how to do it. since your combo box is bound to MemberID, you CANNOT use that field to enter free text. You MUST use a new field. You were asking how to save text data to this field and the answer still is you can't.

Personally, I would not do this at all because it would mean copying member name into this new field as well. I would add a new entry in the Member table. Since for some reason you don't want to create new member records, then create a dummy record and use that MemberID for all non-members but you still need the new field to hold the persons name.

 

[nanscombe]

Pat H,

I have repeated in 3 separate posts that I was looking for a method to input free text into a 'Member Name' field, NOT repeat NOT into a 'Member ID' field.

jcbhydro.

Hang on a minute.

You have told us that the rowsource for your Members Name field is as follows.

SELECT Mail List([COLOR="Red"]Member ID[/COLOR]), Mail List(Member Name), Mail List(Surname) From Mail List ORDER by (Surname)

And that the Bound column is 1.

You may be choosing "Member Name" from the list but it is "Member ID", column number 1 in your combo box, that is being saved to your table.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I have done this.

As an example, I have a quote system that loads a list of permitted product descriptions from an external system. If they want to change the description, originally they had to enter it into the external system, and re-export it.

we changed that, so they had a combo box of existing descriptions to guide them, but limit to list was set to no, so they could actually enter whatever description they wanted.

you gain some benefits, and lose some benefits by having free text fields, though.

 

[nanscombe]

That certainly works when you have a combo box which derives its values directly from the underlying table but, in this case, the OP is using a lookup table and saving the ID instead so it won't work.

Option 1: "Other" option, in lookup table, plus free text field in data table
Option 2: Add new values to lookup table

And possibly others I haven't thought of.

 

[jcbhydro]

Nigel,
I have been away from home for a few weeks but I am still keen to achieve the object previously outlined.
I am confident that your proposed coding will achieve the object but in my inexperience I have failed to translate your sample coding to work with my database structure. If I define my structure in more detail perhaps you would kindly advise me further.
The membership details of the society are stored in table 'Mail List'. The PK is 'Member ID' and 1st Name & Surname are concatenated to form a 'Member Name' field.
A 2nd table 'Group Members' gives details of which members are affiliated to one or several of some 50 Groups. The table has fields Group ID, Group Name, Member ID & Member Name. Groups occasionally admit members prior to their joining the society and who are not included in the 'Mail List' table. Hence the need for a text box input as you have depicted in your code.
The entry is made using a Group Members Entry form equivalent to your 'Mailshot' form.
Entry is to be made either from the drop down list of 'Member Name' or as a text box entry for non-members.
I would be extremely grateful if you could provide me with further guidance to translate your coding to suit my database structure.

Regards,

jcbhydro