Form Setup

[mwieting]

I am trying to create a very simple database/application. Right now in my main table i have a list of my virtual servers, the vlan/network they run on, a backup tag, and a few other things. My other fields are Date, Intial, and Notes. These 3 fields are meant for users to enter any changes they made to a virtual server, enter there initials, and the enter the date of the change they made.
What i want is a form that you can Choose a server from a dropdown and then have a pop up entry form that displays all the servers basic info (from the server table) and also have the ability to enter notes, initials, and date.
An alternative to a drop down would be to have something like this

A B C D E F ....IF the user is looking for a sever that starts with an A, youd hit A and all the servers that start with A would populate. Then when you select the server youd have the same popup as discussed previously.



Any help would be appreciated.

[Micron]

Suggest you base a form on a query on this table rather than the table itself. I don't see why this couldn't/wouldn't be a form with textboxes for the server details, and an unbound combo box whose row source is a query on your server field in your main table. If you want to filter the server list as a user types in the combo box, this is a fairly easy and common topic. If you Google "ms access combo box filter as you type" you'll get tons of hits. Pick one that closely resembles your setup (i.e. considering text vs numbers in a list or anything else that may be relevant to you). The reason for the query suggestion is that it can provide more flexibility going forward. Just make sure that it can be edited before you create the form, and any time you modify the query structure.

Note: Date is a reserved word and should not be used for object or variable names. It's also can become meaningless down the road. Something like ChangeDate, or ChgDte would be more helpful. If you adopt a proper naming convention, you will almost never have this problem.

EDIT: forgot to mention that I'm not seeing a need for a popup form at all. A single form can work (without the combo) whereby you just cycle through the records if there aren't too many. Another possibility is a form/subform with the main form containing the combo and the subform the detail textboxes. If the subform has navigation controls, you can cycle through only the records that are related to the combo box selected value. Then there is the split form, but I have to confess I've rarely used them, so I'm just throwing that out here. It may not apply to your situation, but it is something for you to investigate.