[AccessD] An Interesting question

Gustav:

That does make is stand out better. Thanks. I still think it's an idea of
dubious merit but whatever the client wants...that I can't talk them out of.



Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
858-259-4334
www.e-z-mrp.com
www.bchacc.com
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 8:24 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] An Interesting question

Hi Rocky

That depends. The text should be a small sentence that doesn't look like a
value.
Also, you may add colour easily:

@[Blue];"Choose an activity"[Red]

This may be useful to distinguish mandatory/required fields from those that
optionally may be filled in.

/gustav


>>> rockysmolin at bchacc.com 30-03-2009 17:10 >>>
Gustav:

Thanks again.  I think the whole idea here of displaying the literal value
is not a good one because I did it on a couple of text fields and instead of
being blank, which visually tells the user that they don't have a value
there, it looks like there has already been a value entered.  If you don't
read it closely, you could end up with records that need values and those
fields and don't have them. 


Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
858-259-4334
www.e-z-mrp.com
www.bchacc.com 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 7:48 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] An Interesting question

Hi Rocky

@ is the format when a string is present. It will present any one or more
characters.
"Enter activity" is the format for Null. This is a literal string.

In some cases you may need to escape each and every character:

@;"\Y\e\a\r\s\' \t\u\r\n\o\v\e\r"

Also, you should apply the format string only when the current records is
new.

For the ComboBox it doesn't work because all values listed are strings, thus
a Null is turned into a zero length string.
The normal trick is to use a union query adding one row for no value:

Select Top 1
  Space(0) As Id,
  'Select Shipper' As ShipperName
>From
  tblShipper
Union
Select
  Id,
  ShipperName
>From
  tblShipper
Order By
  Sgn(Len(Id)),
  ShipperName;

/gustav


>>> rockysmolin at bchacc.com 30-03-2009 16:20 >>>
Gustav:

That works perfectly.  Thank you. 

But, curious - why does it work?  What is the @ all about?

Is there something similar that can be done with combo boxes?  I have one
with two columns - the first one has width zero and the second non-zero.  I
tried @;"";"Enter Client" but it changes the format to @;";Select Client"
and doesn't display
The "Enter Client".

MTIA

Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
858-259-4334
www.e-z-mrp.com
www.bchacc.com 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 12:47 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] An Interesting question

Hi Rocky

Everyone seems to forget your original question.
The elegant solution to this is to use the Format property of the TextBox
inserting the shadow text for the "format" for Null:

@;"Enter activity"

/gustav

>>> rockysmolin at bchacc.com 30-03-2009 00:37 >>>
I could but then that would put that value into the record.  He just wants a
'label' describing what should go into the field in case there no value
there.  Some of these are bound combo boxes where the bound column is the
Autonumber ID and the first column showing is some kind of descriptive data.



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