Simple Question Regarding List Value Edits

[Stang70Fastback]

I have a form with some combo boxes. The users need to be forced to enter ONLY one of the given options, so I have disabled the "Allow List Value Edits" field so that the little "edit list" icon does not show up under the drop down in form view.

However, some admins need to be able to go in and edit these lists themselves. My only issue with the current setup is that changing the above setting also hides the "Edit List Items..." option in the drop down menu when you right click the combo box in design view. This means that to edit the list options, the user first has to change the "Allow List Value Edits" property to 'yes', then right click and select "Edit List Items...", and then remember to change the "Allow List Value Edits" property back to 'no'. It is this last step that I'm afraid users will forget to do, thereby leaving some of the combo boxes unlocked. Is there a way to disable the edit button in form view, but not have the option hidden from the right click menu in design view?

 

[CJ_London]

Allowing users, any users to edit forms is potentially dangerous. Why don't you store the list of options in a table and have a rowsource referencing the table - then the form does not need to be edited and you can limit access to the table to the required users

 

[GinaWhipp]

You can leave your present settings and use the Not_In_List event. Have a look here...
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-27.html

 

[Stang70Fastback]

Allowing users, any users to edit forms is potentially dangerous. Why don't you store the list of options in a table and have a rowsource referencing the table - then the form does not need to be edited and you can limit access to the table to the required users

I was thinking about doing that, and will probably have to. I was trying to avoid that because there are many forms with tons of combo boxes and I was trying to avoid cluttering up the tables list with 30 different tables for combos.

I wish you could have one "master combo" table where you could link each combo box to a different column. I mean, you can do that, but then columns with fewer values than others end up with a bunch of blank options, so that doesn't work. Oh well...

You can leave your present settings and use the Not_In_List event. Have a look here...
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-27.html

That's not what I'm looking to do. We're looking at some folks being able to edit the list values in design view when a new training category is created, but other than that, you shouldn't be able to do anything other than choose from the list.

 

[GinaWhipp]

You can control who has access to that event, however, CJ London's way is even better and easier to implement!

 

[Stang70Fastback]

I suppose I'll just do that. My OCD self hates to have to create so many extra tables, but such is life I suppose!

 

[CJ_London]

I wish you could have one "master combo" table where you could link each combo box to a different column

You can have one table with two columns one to indicate the relevant combo box 'source' and the other the value

e.g.
tblLists
ListType integer
ListValue text

values

ListType ListValue
1           open
1           closed
1           half open
2           empty
2           full
2           half full
2           half empty

then your rowsouce for each combo would be

SELECT ListValue FROM tblLIsts WHERE ListType=1 ORDER BY ListValue

Change the 1 to 2 or whatever as required.

instead of using numbers for listtype you could use text which might be easier to manage and if you require the list in an order other than alphabetic you can add a 3rd column for a sortorder

 

[Stang70Fastback]

That's an interesting solution. It becomes a bit clunky when I've got a huge bunch of combo boxes, but it's still cleaner than the alternative method of a completely different table for each combo. I might do that!

EDIT: This works great! THANKS!!!