Question Visible and Invisible Combo in a Continuous Form

[Robbyp2001]

Hello folks
I wonder if anyone here can help with this potential problem.
In my school library database beside each book title there is a combobox that lists all the student names and classes. The librarian scrolls down to the book title then selects the borrower (student name) from the combobox. This then applies the title to the student, applies the DateOut, DateDue and marks the status as On-Loan.

This is pretty straightforward and works well.

The librarian has explained to me that often students arrive at the library in class groups and as such will often check out books as a group. The librarian asked if it would be possible to filter the student names by class, making it easier and quicker for her to find the correct student name. Instead of scrolling through some 300 names, she can now see only those in whatever class she has selected.

To this end I created a combobox which does the trick, however, because the student names are now filtered, the names of existing borrowers (who belong to a different class) disappear from view, until the filter is removed.

Although the record is still clearly flagged as ‘On-Loan’, the blank space where the name should be may confuse the librarian, especially if he is trying to book out titles quickly. She could perhaps not notice the ‘On-Loan flag and change the name, which because of the filter, is blank. There are many duplicate titles in the libray.

My question is this. What can I do to minimise the risk of this happening? My thoughts are:
Where the ‘select class combobox’ is not null and the ‘BookStatus’ is = ’ On Loan’ the ‘Select Student combobox’ should become invisible but remain visible for books that have not been allocated. The ‘Select Student combobox’ for these records will of course still only contain the students of the class selected.

I hope I have explained this problem clearly. I have attached a couple of screenshots (hopefully) that will show the screen before the class filter is applied and how it looks once the filter is applies. Note the books on loan and the apparently empty student box.

Many thanks for any suggestions folks.

Rob

 

[static]

It's a bit clunky, but you can make a textbox and combobox pair look like a single combo.

Show the student names in the textbox.
Shrink the the combo so that only the drop down button shows and set it's 'list width' property.
Position it beside the textbox.

The textbox will display the correct value regardless of the combo's rowsource.

You'll need to play around with it to get it to work how you like.
You might need to lock the textbox and you'll lose the auto-complete functionality so maybe switch to that mode only when filtering.

 

[Robbyp2001]

Wow!!!!! Many thanks Static. I tried this and it does work! I'd have never thought of that!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

@statis.

I like that idea.

I think it will work for me in an analogous situation. can you post an example just so we can see exactly what you mean.

 

[static]

Here you are.

'Show combo' toggle displays/hides the actual combo value.

View attachment example.accdb