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Contact Form
Steve Hannah 
    
5 years ago
I am enjoying your lessons very much. I have run into a little problem though and perhaps you can enlighten me. I am on Access Expert level 2. I decided that a contact form would be a good idea for my business. I did everything you did. I see two things that are different than your video. One, when I open the properties for the combo box that finds a student (I have students instead of customers) and begin to type in =Forms!, etc, Access does not offer any help. I need to type in the whole thing. Not a big deal. The button works. When I get to the contact form it displays the student record according to the StudentID field, as it should. The combo box displays the correct student record. But when I try to go to create a new contact for that student, Access goes to a new record, but DOES NOT automatically populate the combo box with that particular student's name. Their name disappears as Access goes to a "new" contact. I have to "find" that student again using the combo box and only then can I enter a new contact for that student. I notice in your examples in the video, Access does indeed fill in the customer's name in the combo box when you create a new contact. Is this a quirk of newer versions of Access, or am I missing something?
Thank you very much!
Kevin Robertson  @Reply  
          
5 years ago
You need to set a Default Value for your Combo Box.
Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago
Thank you Kevin.  I do have a default value in the combo box.
=[Forms]![StudentInformationActiveF]![StudentID]
Exactly as Richard does in the video.  Still doesn't populate a new line with the student's name.
Richard Rost  @Reply  
          
5 years ago
Hi Steve. Very hard to tell what's happening from just your description. Can you post some screen shots to show me what's going on?
Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago
Sorry about the duplicate screen shots.  Anyway, the first shot is from your Expert Level 2, Lesson 4 video about creating a button that takes you to a customer's contact form and prepares a new contact entry by automatically populating a new contact with the customer's name.  The second screen shot is my contact form, and everything works fine, except that Luke Skywalker's name is not populating the new contact line.  I have to search for his name and enter it into the new contact line to create a new contact for him.  Am I missing something?  Thank you.
Scott Axton  @Reply  
      
5 years ago
Showing us the form view doesn't help a whole lot.  Neither does a screenshot of the course.
We needed to see the design mode of your combo box .

Check out this video Value From a Form for a little different way of explaining the fix for your issue ( I think ).
If that doesn't help come on back and let us know.

If you are receiving error messages please capture that as well and post it.

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago

Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago
The first shot is my student information form.  Clicking the "Contacts" button on the left brings up the Contacts Form, which is the second shot.  You can see the Information form is still open behind it.  It works, but Luke's name is not being placed in the new contact line automatically, like it does in Richard's form.  The third shot shows the Contacts form in design view with the combo box properties sheet. What am I missing?  Thank you.
Scott Axton  @Reply  
      
5 years ago
Steve I'm not seeing anything blatantly in error.

Does the sample database provided with the course work for you?

Triple check spelling. For instance the in the first screenshot you have "Dare of Birth"  It should be "Date" I'm sure.  
Sometimes you look and look and you can't see forest for all the trees.
Steve Hannah OP  @Reply  
    
5 years ago
The sample database and my database are the same, except Richard has the default value =[Forms]![FormName]![FieldName] in the CustomerID field instead of the combo box, because there is no combo box.  I tried switching the default to the studentID field in my database with no effect.  There are no spelling errors in my database.  Thank you anyway.  
     Can anyone tell me exactly what mechanism access uses to populate the "new" field with the name?  That way I can pinpoint the the problem and troubleshoot it.  Or does it just happen by osmosis because of the =[Forms]![FormName]![FieldName] default value in the combo box?  And if that's the case, is the fact that I cannot get it to work a quirk in newer versions of Access?  Richard's video is for Access 2010 and I'm using the newest version.  Or finally, I could just be missing something.
Richard Rost  @Reply  
          
5 years ago
It should work in the combo box as long as the first bound column is the ID. And no, it's not a version issue. This behavior has been part of Access since the beginning and hasn't changed.

This thread is now CLOSED. If you wish to comment, start a NEW discussion in Access Forum.
 

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