No, you cannot change that requirement. The reason is this: the user sees
the first visible column in the "textbox" portion of the textbox, and this
is the "data" that the user can type into that box. If the first visible
column is not the bound value, then ACCESS will not have a value for the
"bound column" when the user types in a "new" value.
For example, suppose the first column (bound column) is the Primary Key ID
for the record and the second column (the first visible column) is a Name.
The user types in "Ken", which is not in the table. What Primary Key ID
value would ACCESS assign to the new record -- all it knows is that you
typed in "Ken" as a new Name.
In this situation, the best solution is to set Limit To List to Yes, and
either use the NotInList event (evern better, use a button that the user can
click when wanting to add a new value) to add a new record via a popup form.
--
Ken Snell
<MS ACCESS MVP>