Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Part I: Access Building Blocks

74

FIGURE 2.22

The property area for the Currency field named CreditLimit

Pressing F6 switches between the field entry pane and the property pane (you may have to press

F6 several times before you reach the desired pane). You can also move between panes by clicking

the desired pane. Some properties display a list of possible values, along with a downward-

pointing arrow when you move the pointer into the field. When you click the arrow, the values

appear in a drop-down list.

The Field Properties pane of the Table Design window has a second tab: the Lookup tab. After

clicking this tab, you may see a single property, the Display Control property. This property is

used for Text, Number, and Yes/No fields.

Figure 2.23 shows the Lookup Property window for the Active Yes/No field where Display

Control is the only property. This property has three choices: Check Box, Text Box, and

Combo Box. Choosing one of these determines which control type is used when a particular field

is added to a form. Generally, all controls are created as text boxes except Yes/No fields, which

are created as check boxes by default. For Yes/No data types, however, you may want to use the

Text Box setting to display Yes/No, True/False, or another choice that you specifically put in

the format property box.

Cross-Reference
You learn about combo boxes in Chapter 7 and again in Chapter 19.

If you’re working with Text fields instead of a Yes/No field and know a certain Text field can

only be one of a few combinations, select the combo box choice for the display control. Figure

2.24 shows the Lookup tab when combo box has been selected as the display control for the

Credit Status field. There are only two acceptable values for Credit Status: OK and Not

OK. These two values (separated by a semicolon) are specified as the combo box’s Row Source,

and the Row Source Type is set to Value List.