Bullet List default in Textbox

[Dehn0045]

I have a form with several bound rich text memo textboxes for entering notes associated with the record. Typically these notes are in a bullet list format. I am wondering what is the best way to set a blank bullet list as the default. I know enough VBA to be dangerous, but was hoping that there is a more straightforward method to achieve this.

[isladogs]

Its always a good idea to do a forum search first
See https://www.accessforums.net/showthr...t+list+textbox

In fact that link is the first one in the list at the bottom of this page

[Dehn0045]

Thanks Colin. Since I am pretty new to all of this, it is hard for me to be sure what is common knowledge and what isn't. Often times things that are really easy to do don't get talked about much, and then I end up trying to adapt a more complex method, only to find the easy method later. Anyway, I had found the chr(149) trick in my google searches (including your post), but it didn't quite perform as I had hoped. With this method, entering a new line doesn't create another bullet. I suppose I could create more code to do that, but I didn't want to make things too complicated and generate errors.

Anyway, I ended up digging a little more and found that in Access "Rich Text" is not really Rich Text, it is formatting using html tags. Here is the discussion that I found most valuable on the topic: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...google_rich_qa

I simply entered "<ul></ul>" in the default value for the field in the table (I suppose you could do this on the form level) and voila, exactly what I wanted.

[isladogs]

Thanks Colin. Since I am pretty new to all of this, it is hard for me to be sure what is common knowledge and what isn't. Often times things that are really easy to do don't get talked about much, and then I end up trying to adapt a more complex method, only to find the easy method later. Anyway, I had found the chr(149) trick in my google searches (including your post), but it didn't quite perform as I had hoped. With this method, entering a new line doesn't create another bullet. I suppose I could create more code to do that, but I didn't want to make things too complicated and generate errors.

Anyway, I ended up digging a little more and found that in Access "Rich Text" is not really Rich Text, it is formatting using html tags. Here is the discussion that I found most valuable on the topic: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...google_rich_qa

I simply entered "<ul></ul>" in the default value for the field in the table (I suppose you could do this on the form level) and voila, exactly what I wanted.

It's a good article that I've used myself

Sorry to disagree but Access can handle both rich text and HTML.
Where I just want formatted text in a memo field, I use rich text.
If I also want images and/or hyperlinks built in to a memo field, I use HTML
Both work fine in those situations

[Dehn0045]

No need to apologize, clearly you are the expert. Thanks for correcting my mistake, I was misapplying a statement about older versions Access.

I think that I now understand how you might build-up a formatted string with VBA code using HTML tags. Is there another way to do it using Rich Text? (sorry if this question doesn't make sense)

[Dehn0045]

For any others that are travelling down this rabbit hole, here is another link that I found instructive: https://www.access-programmers.co.uk...d.php?t=290820

Thanks again to Colin for his contributions on that thread as well

[isladogs]

To be fair, the article though old is still valid on what happens behind the scenes
The screenshot below shows two different versions of a help item chosen at random from one of my apps
I introduced it in place of a written user guide which nobody ever bothered to read

Users select a topic and can choose to view a simple formatted rich text summary or a more detailed version with image & document hyperlinks



I realise the images are low quality & that its difficult to see the code differences in the screenshot.
So I've also uploaded it as a zipped Word doc in case you are interested
The highlighted parts are the external image / document links

It took a fair bit of work to get this working but its been a very popular feature over a number of years

[isladogs]

For any others that are travelling down this rabbit hole, here is another link that I found instructive: https://www.access-programmers.co.uk...d.php?t=290820

Thanks again to Colin for his contributions on that thread as well

For info, here is a screenshot of one of my rich text Access reports from that thread which probably shows the idea more clearly



That's from a report used with my SQL deep search & replace feature (similar to that in V-Tools)