A Little Access Help

[HansV]

I have no idea why other forms would stop working when a new form is created.
And frankly, I don't understand your problem.

Try the following:
Open the Search Unsaved Titles Database form in design view.
On the Form Design tab of the ribbon, in the Tools group, click Tab Order.
Click the little box to the left of CATEGORY.
This selects CATEGORY.
Drag the box up to below RATING.
Click OK.

S2439.png

Close and save the form.
Does the form behave better now?

[hlewton]

I have no idea why other forms would stop working when a new form is created.
And frankly, I don't understand your problem.

Try the following:
Open the Search Unsaved Titles Database form in design view.
On the Form Design tab of the ribbon, in the Tools group, click Tab Order.
Click the little box to the left of CATEGORY.
This selects CATEGORY.
Drag the box up to below RATING.
Click OK.


S2439.png


Close and save the form.
Does the form behave better now?

I am going to try this but first I will try to explain my problem. Under normal circumstances when I am entering new data, "Movies" and get to the the input named "Category" I choose the category and hit the Enter key. It places the data into whatever Table the form I am using is associated with and then moves the cursor back to the first input field named "Movie Title," thus creating a new record in that table and then allowing me to enter another or as many more as I need to. Now that is how I would like it to continue to work.

Here is what happens immediately when I create the button named "Search Unsaved Titles Database" on any of the first 3 input forms. When I get to the Category input and hit the Enter Key the cursor remains in that "Category" input and does not create a new record in the associated table. I have to click on the "Next Record" button to have a new record created and the cursor placed back into the "Movie Title" input. Please see that attachment. I'm going to try your suggestion now but I hope I have explained my problem better. Thank you.

Next Record.jpg

[HansV]

OK, do the following:
Open the form in design view.
Select the 'Next Record' button.
On the Other tab of the Property Sheet, set the 'Tab Stop' property to Yes.
Open the 'Tab Order' dialog, as mentioned in my previous reply.
Drag the NextRecord control to just below CATEGORY.

S2440.png

Click OK.
Close and save the form.

[hlewton]

Hans, I am not sure what is going on but please bear with me. I know you are going to find this extremely hard to believe but after changing those Rating and Category boxes from text boxes to combo boxes, I no longer have Rating or Category in the list when I open the Tab Order. Again, please see the attachment.

So from here what is your suggestion, do I go back to the version of my database I sent you and start from there leaving those boxes as text boxes and try the Tab Order before anything else? Also if I drag the Next Record to below the Category will it still function independently as a Next Record button?

Combo Box1.jpg

[hlewton]

OK let me see what you think about this.
I started over with the version you have.
I changed the Tab Stop Property of the Next Record button to "Yes."
Rearranged the Tab Stops on Open UnSaved Movies Search to exactly as you said. In the attachments the rating = Combo35 and the Category = Combo32.
I then created a button on the Open New Movies Form and it did the exact same thing as far as not entering a new record and returning to create yet another new record, as I would like it to do.
I checked the Tab Stops and I had to split the screenshots to show you that the Tab Stop order is as you suggested but when I hit the Enter Button in the Category field the Tab stop it jumps to, instead of following the listed tab Stops, the Open UnSaved Movies Search tab, which, as you can see in the attachments is the very last tab Stop. I know it is actually there too because I can see the little box around the button I created and also the next press of the Enter Key opens the Open UnSaved Movies Search. I guess the question now is why isn't it following the Tab Stops the way they are listed and can that be fixed?

Rating and Category.jpg

Jump to Unsaved search.jpg

[hlewton]

I have to say a little more.
I am not sure that the form Open UnSaved Movies Search's properties has an affect on the how this is performing since it is not a form that can be used for any imputing. It is only to do a search. Be that as it may, I did make the changes you suggested and still had the problem.
I am using Enter New Movies form for this next bit of experimenting. I did move the Next Record tab under the Category tab and it didn't help so I moved the AddNewRecord tab there and it didn't work either.
In the first attachment please see the Tab Order of this form when it is working as it should.
In the next attachment it did not work either and the only difference is I have created that OpenUnSaved MoviesSearch which the Red arrow is pointing to. Remember from the above post, after hitting the Enter key inside the Category box it jumped to the very last Tab Stop, which is not seen in this post.

So Tab Stops seem to be the problem.

Working.jpg

Not Working.jpg

[HansV]

I'll send you a modified version of the database. Does the Search Unsaved Titles Database form work better there?

[hlewton]

Not sure because that form taken by itself work as I wanted it to. Again, thank you.

[hlewton]

Hans, I have to tell you. I found a forum that only deals with Access. I joined it today. As you may imagine, it took me nearly all day and many screenshots to explain exactly what my problem was and what I wanted my database to do. Turns out one of the people there was trying to talk me into redesigning my database because he said I had too many tables. Well I knew that was not an option. Then I showed them how once I created that Open UnSaved Movie Search button on any of my data entry forms and hit the Enter key after entering data in the Category form the focus was on that Open UnSaved Movie Search button instead of entering the record and starting over. He had me turn off the Tab stop on the Open UnSaved Movie Search button and all now works as I wanted it to. Just thought after all your work, I needed to let you know what happened to fix it, at least to my liking, probably not to theirs.

[HansV]

Good to hear that your problem has finally been solved!

[hlewton]

That's the correct icon.
I can't explain why it stopped working. Once you turn on 'Use Control Wizards', it should remain on until you explicitly turn it off...

You are absolutely correct. I experimented with this and made sure the wizard was working. I closed the database and reopened it and then opened another different database and it was still on. I wish I would have seen some indication that the wizard was active. By thinking I had to click on "Use Control Wizard" each time I was adding a control button, I was actually turning it off. An indication of some sort sure would have saved me a lot of work and confusion. Maybe there is some indication somewhere but I don't know where that would be.

[HansV]

Microsoft could have done a better job at it, but you can actually see whether 'Use Control Wizards' is on or off:

S2441.png

[hlewton]

Microsoft could have done a better job at it, but you can actually see whether 'Use Control Wizards' is on or off:


S2441.png

WOW that is subtle. Thanks for that information.