Switched Keys

A few days ago I looked at a cardfile program and verbally wondered if it could be done in Access. Well yes and it's rather simple.

Here's the steps I followed.

1. Create the table. I used cardID cardTitle cardNotes and cardDate. You could add others depending on what you want to use it for.

2. Create a form using the form wizard all fields from the table and the justified option. Add a few records to see how it works.

3. Create a lookup combo box on the form using the combo box wizard to Find a record based on cardID (hidden) and cardTitle.

4. Open the form in Design View select the combo box you just created and Format > Change To > ListBox and make it several lines tall.

5. Select the cardTitle text box and click the ellipsis for the Event AfterUpdate. From the dialog select the code builder and VB should open. Add Me.Refresh in the middle of the routine where the cursor should be. Close VB and view the form.

Select the card you want to view from the ListBox and it will be displayed automatically. Try adding another card and see that it is added to the list when you click anywhere else.

There's a lot more you can do with this. You'll want to arrange the fields the way you want color them to make them stand out or not. Sort the entries in the ListBox. Make the cursor Goto a certain control (i.e. cardNotes.SetFocus) after you select the card you want. Make the lookup box the full height of the form and you may even want to add due dates or categories to the record for filtering later. This is just a start. A quick start.

This is an easy one. Since I'm not at my home computer now I created it from memory and it took less than 5 minutes but I'll give you 10 minutes.