Adding ellipses to a text field

[cbende2]

Hello all,

I have, what I think is a simple problem. Basically I have a text box on a form that needs to be a certain size. The actual text that is populating the text box is too many characters to be displayed. How do I make the text box display the first 3 characters and then an ellipses following?

Also I thought about making a new unbound textbox with ellipses, however, my form is continuous, so even though the some text boxes have empty strings, the ellipses will still be present.

Some pseudocode of what I'm guessing it will look like:



[(If(String(Me![NotesField] > 3 characters) then Return(Left(String(Me![NotesField], 3)" & "..."))]

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[June7]

Why do you have a field that allows long strings but then only display 3 characters?

Expression in query or textbox:

IIf(Len([NotesField])>3, Left([NotesField],3) & "...")

[cbende2]

Its a continuous form, and my Boss wants the notefield on there so they can tell whether or not that record has notes. I'm just following directions from the Ol' Bossaroo. Thanks June7, I'll comment in a bit and let you know if it works!

[cbende2]

Okay, So I am getting a #Type! Error, By the way, I think I need to mention that the text box is bound to the [NoteField].

What I did was paste the formula you gave me into the expression builder

[June7]

If you have expression in the ControlSource of textbox then it is not bound to field. However, if the textbox is named the same as the field used in expression, will cause a circular reference error. Name the textbox like tbxNotes.

Expression in textbox must be preceded with = sign.

The form RecordSource is a query? You might do the calc in query instead.

[cbende2]

Where would it go in the query? in the criteria? or would I set it as an Alias: IIf(Len([NotesField])>3, Left([NotesField],3) & "...")

EDIT: I used an unbound textbox and its working now. Thank you June7!

[June7]

In query the expression would create a field - an 'alias' as you put it. Bind textbox to that field. It would not be an editable field of course.

Either way, set the textbox as TabStop No. I also make non-editable controls look different from data entry controls.

[cbende2]

Ok thanks!