Access 2016 - help creating form input to filtered report by dropdown list.

[zy0n1c]

Background: Access 2016 .accdb file on Windows 10 Pro. Single user at the moment. 8 tables, 6 queries, 7 forms, 3 reports.


Project: We do temporary hiring/staffing for many different industries. I've been tasked with creating a custom database that my users will be able to sort by a number of criteria and generate reports. Mainly, employees. We are going to store their personal information, emergency contact info, and safety training/certifications. If we get a job in, say, New York, that requires 10 hydroblasters with confined spaces training my employees would like to open a form(menu) and drop down the state, type of trade, and safety training required and generate a report showing all ~X number of employees that fit those requirements.


Where I'm at: I've created the EmployeeDB table, loaded it with several fields. Everything from first name to SSN.


Notable fields:
State - Lookup field from StateAbbrevDB table
Job Types - Lookup field from JobtypeDB table
Site Specific Training - Lookup field from SiteSpecificDB table
Status - Lookup field from EmployeeStatusDB table
@ - attachment field for copies of certifications, IDs, etc.


Forms:
I've created a "main menu" which opens forms for AddANewEmployee - which adds records. By far the easiest form so far.
I've created an EmployeeSearch form which works for specific things by using text boxes and the query arguments: Is Null Or Like "" & [Forms]![EmployeeSearch]![TxtFirstName] & "" - and several OR statements
I'm trying to create an EmployeeFilter form. I cannot wrap my head around how to place the fields on the form - unbound combo box? text field with input mask? Do I use a control source? How can I provide my users a dropdown list containing all 50 states and allow them to filter/browse our employee database based on which state they're in? If it's not too much harder, I'd like the dropdown to be checkboxes and allow multiple state searches, for example on the border of CO, AZ, NM, UT we'd want to see candidates from all 4 states.


I AM new to this but everyone has to start somewhere. Just hoping to get some help pushing past this one form. If I can make it happen for this table, I should be able to reproduce it on my other tables afterwards.
I've uploaded a copy of the .accdb file here: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=...83733975093056
Any help would be greatly appreciated -- PS all data in the database is made up gibberish, I'm not posting people's actual SSNs.

[pbaldy]

Many of us won't click on links to unknown sites, so you may be better off zipping the file and attaching it to a post here. Here's one way to report on multiple selections:

http://www.baldyweb.com/multiselect.htm

[zy0n1c]

Employee Database v021.zip

Here is my database attached.

[June7]

And another tutorial http://allenbrowne.com/ser-62.html

[zy0n1c]

Hey everyone,

I managed to solve it myself before I got your responses. Just now getting time to "close" this thread.

Long story short - I made a huge mistake at some point and didn't catch it. I was querying a query with my filter. The query it was querying had criteria for searching for a specific employee like name, phone number, etc. So, it was trying to submit state values to a txt firstname box and...whatever sense you can make of that mess.

Queried the table directly with a new query, combo boxes passed information properly and I've even got my Or statements set up properly. It's working as intended. Now i'm moving on to checkboxes.

[pbaldy]

Glad you got it sorted.