Combo Box Background

[RayMilhon]

Is it possible on a combo box to change the background color based on the values? I have a combo box that pulls it's choices from a table. In the table there are 3 fields (Classid, Classdesc, Status)
The form the combo box is on is based on another table that has a table to link to the choices in the combo box ClassID is the field to link. The combo box does not display that field it displays the description for the user to select. However those choices vary as some were canceled from last year and others added this year. We still want to track the history but I want to differentiate the possibilities in the combo box by changing the background colors for those that are active versus those that are inactive. Any thoughts how I can do that?

[CJ_London]

not possible with the combo, one of the trade offs against using java/.net etc where you build the combo from scratch (hence longer development times).

you can create your own combo using a textbox, button and subform for the three main components, then the subform can use conditional formatting.

[RuralGuy]

Stephen Lebans has done some work in this area in which you might be interested: http://www.lebans.com/List_Combo.htm

[CJ_London]

Stephen Lebans has done some work in this area in which you might be interested: http://www.lebans.com/List_Combo.htm

I've visited his site many times, never saw that one, will have to investigate!

[Micron]

A combo box has a background color property. Why can't one alter that value based on selection? What am I missing here?

[jwhite]

I'm with Micron on this one - Combobox Control background works great for Ac2000 and Ac2013.

Ray, is your control actually a ListBox Control? ListBox Controls cannot have a background color with native Access, thus RuralGuy's suggestion.

[RayMilhon]

JWhite no the control is a combobox. Not sure I explained it correctly. I have an Access 2010 Front End with A SQL Server 2008 R2 Back End. The database is a combination of Data from 4 other Databases that include Potential members and Members. So there is Specific Data in there for each Person Also there are tables for each of the departments for the specific data each requires. The purpose of combining the database was so all Departments could see what the status was for each person not only for their department but the others. One of those departments is Health Education which includes classes for Cardiac Patients, COPD Patients and Diabetic Patients. So the structure of the form is the main form links to the person Data with a tab control and tabs for each individual department for their specific data. The Health Education Form includes 2 Subforms 1 for the Diabetic Patients so we can track their A1C results and the 2nd so we can track which classes they attended. The classes subform is a datasheet with shows the date they attended and the class they attended. The class Attended is the combo box I'm having an issue with. The table used includes 4 fields ClassAttendedID Autonumber Primary key, DateAttended Date Field, ClassID Foreign Key to identify which class and PersonID Foreign Key to person table

Everything works it's just that when the user clicks on the combo box the list comes up showing all of the classes I'd like it to be easier for them to see which are the Active classes and which are the Inactive ones.

So I'm not talking about the background of the combobox itself I'm talking about the background of each choice and I'm coming to the conclusion I'm out of luck there. Thank you to everyone for trying to help.

[Micron]

Sounds like you want random row colors based on the list item value. That's not possible, AFAIK. About the only thing I can think of that would come close would be a continuous form as a small sub form so that it resembled a list box. Even then, you'd have to have transparent controls with an unbound empty textbox (or maybe label) that was directly underneath, and use conditional formatting on it which is based on the content of the row control. Even then, I think for all that trouble you can expect to get about a maximum of 3 formatting conditions. Not sure I'm recalling correctly that this is possible with continuous forms, given that each instance of a repeated control is really one one control. Maybe the control should have some sort of additional field with a symbol or other value that denotes the row values.

[jwhite]

What identifies each Class as being Active vs. InActive? I presume a field? If so, you can include that field in the drop-down list to the left or right of the Class value. Show as A / N/A or 1 / 0 or whatever they would understand. Then you wouldn't need colorization of the dropdown list. Just add it to the rowsource and increment the column count by 1 and adjust the column widths as desired.

[RayMilhon]

Thank you all. JWhite that's what I ended up doing. Micron I was hopeful but What I ended up with is there are now 3 columns in the combo box one shows if it's current or History based on the date. Thanks for your help

[jwhite]

Congrats on the resolution! We are glad to have helped.

[Micron]

Well, it seems that the solution parallels my last sentence of my last post. Glad you solved it.