Quickly selecting a product (pop-up?) form.

[emihir0]

We are getting regular orders (not same products) from a handful of clients.



Our products are of format <MODEL>-<SUB-CODE>. Hence I have made the following:

1) Single Form acts as main form for new order.
2) Sub-Form on this (1) which is in continuous form view to list all of the products this client ordered. This looks neater than datasheet view and can have buttons (for example to delete the record with 1 click).

The problem for me is how do I select the product quickly in this continuous form (CF).

So far what I have done is that when a new record wants to be added to an order, a form pops up where the user selects <Model> from a combobox and then <SUB-CODE> from combobox next to the first one (which is filtered based on his model selection). Then this product is confirmed and shown as full name (ie. <Model>-<Sub-CODE>) in the CF.

What would be the standard way to do this? My uttermost concern is that this CF needs to be filled as quickly/efficiently as possible.

[June7]

In continuous form data controls can be arranged to appear as datasheet.

Using a popup form complicates design. Passing the selected value back to the calling form where record is being entered/edited is tricky. Example from my code for one approach:

    DoCmd.OpenForm "DialogGetDate", , , , , acDialog, "Transfer"
    If CurrentProject.AllForms("DialogGetDate").IsLoaded Then
        Me.tbxNewDate = Form_DialogGetDate.tbxDateDialog
        DoCmd.Close acForm, "DialogGetDate", acSaveNo
    End If

[ItsMe]

The list of commonly ordered items can be provided in a pop-up = Yes and Modal = No form. A double click on an item, like the item's stock/model number, could add the item to the sales order. I would have the pop-up form append records to a tblOrders. I would bind the subform to tblOrders, showing which items have been added from the pop-up.

An alternative to a continuous on the pop-up could be a listbox control or a combo. I will use combos, sometimes. The combo's Rowsource can be updated by a little search form, of sorts. Sometimes I will even provide an option for the user to place stock # ahead of description or vice versa. The user choosing one over the other would affect the Combo's Rowsource.