How do I allow user input within Access?

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G

Guest

When a user clicks on a particular cell within Access (2003), I would like it
to give them a choice of entering say, A, B, or C.

How do I do that in Access?

signed
Access Illiterate... ;-)
 
"Cell" is an Excel term, not an Access term.

First, it sounds like you might be letting your users open a table and type
directly into a table. This is not correct. Your users should be entering
their data through a FORM. In a form, you can control the edits of the
various fields, select if they are there to only enter new data (data entry)
or to modify existing records. You can decide in what order the records are
displayed. Plus, much more.

There are several ways to do what you are asking. If the particular field
will always contain one of those three values, you can do it fairly simply.
Open the TABLE in design view and pick the field you want to change. If you
change the "Data Type" to "Lookup Wizard..." it will walk you through the
options.

In your form, you would most likely represent this field by adding a
combo-box to your form which will give the user a drop-down list of options.

If the values may change, then you would want to create a new table and link
the available values to that table. This would allow your users to easily
add items to the list or take them away.

Post back if you need more help.

Hope that helps,

Rick B
 
Helps aton - Thanks Rick !!!!!

Rick B said:
"Cell" is an Excel term, not an Access term.

First, it sounds like you might be letting your users open a table and type
directly into a table. This is not correct. Your users should be entering
their data through a FORM. In a form, you can control the edits of the
various fields, select if they are there to only enter new data (data entry)
or to modify existing records. You can decide in what order the records are
displayed. Plus, much more.

There are several ways to do what you are asking. If the particular field
will always contain one of those three values, you can do it fairly simply.
Open the TABLE in design view and pick the field you want to change. If you
change the "Data Type" to "Lookup Wizard..." it will walk you through the
options.

In your form, you would most likely represent this field by adding a
combo-box to your form which will give the user a drop-down list of options.

If the values may change, then you would want to create a new table and link
the available values to that table. This would allow your users to easily
add items to the list or take them away.

Post back if you need more help.

Hope that helps,

Rick B
Click to expand...
 
KD,

I strongly advise you NOT use the Lookup feature. Whenever you need lookup
functionality, you are much better off using a combo box on a form. From a
post from John Vinson (MVP) 11/11/2004 under the thread "how to make look up
field":

I would suggest you check out

http://www.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm

for a critique of this "misfeature".

Lookup fields have one benefit: they make it easier to add a Combo Box
control to a Form, by a couple of mouseclicks.

They have MANY disadvantages; the most serious is that they conceal
the actual content of your tables. With a Lookup field it APPEARS that
Table2 contains text from Table1 - BUT IT DOESN'T; it actually
contains a concealed numeric ID, and when you try to sort data, or
query it, you'll get wierd results because you *think* you're
searching for "Jones" while what's actually in the table is 193.

Lookup fields are NEVER NECESSARY. Instead, use a Form to view and
edit your data (rather than table datasheets) and use a Combo Box on
the form to "look up" data from the related table, and store it in
your current table. If you have trouble using the Toolbox Wizard to do
this, please post back with a description of your tables, how they are
related, and what you want to store and to see.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

Hope that helps.
Sprinks
 
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