Using a combo box to locate data

[brocsman]

I am designing a form. The first combo box will identify the item I want to store data about, but there is a list of about 4000 items to choose from. I want to set up the combo box so that when it is clicked or you tab to it you can start to type the first few letters of what you are looking for, and the drop-down list will move to that point. You could then highlight the relevant entry, so saving time. I've seen it work many times on other people's forms, but I can't figure it out for myself.

Help please!

 

[boblarson]

I am designing a form. The first combo box will identify the item I want to store data about, but there is a list of about 4000 items to choose from. I want to set up the combo box so that when it is clicked or you tab to it you can start to type the first few letters of what you are looking for, and the drop-down list will move to that point. You could then highlight the relevant entry, so saving time. I've seen it work many times on other people's forms, but I can't figure it out for myself.

Help please!

In design view, set the combo box's AUTO EXPAND property to YES.

 

[brocsman]

Thanks very much for the reply. I've realised that I failed to thank you for your reply to my last posting. I was trying to fix someone else's database, and I discovered they had not normalised their tables, so I've given up on that, and I'm re-building the whole thing from scratch.

It's been about fifteen years since I built a relational database, so I'm a bit rusty. You can look forward to a number of stupid questions in the next few weeks!

Thanks again.

Les