I've been working on a couple projects for some time before having watched this 2-part video series and actually was able to just use the Format property of the ComboBox. My method may still be viewed as "cheesy" I suppose, but it does work without a union query or a bogus record.

The thing to understand about the format property is that it applies to the BOUND column of the combo box. And because, often, our bound column is our hidden id field, we just can't see it. But it works the exact same as the format property of a text box.

So, my alternate solution is change the bound column to the visible column and set the combo box as unbound. Then use the AfterUpdate event to set the value of a hidden bound textbox to the value in the hidden first column. Example:

ComboBox:
   name: WeekdayCbo
   row source: 1;"Monday";2;"Tuesday";3;"Wednesday";4;"Thursday";5;"Friday";6;"Saturday";7;"Sunday"
   bound column: 2
   format: @;[Blue]"Select the Day"
   column count: 2
   column widths: 0";1.5"

TextBox:
   name: WeekayID
   control source: WeekDayID
   visible: no

Private Sub WeekdayCbo_AfterUpdate()
    WeekdayID = WeekdayCbo.Column(0)
End Sub