Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 8: Working with Data on Access Forms

299

FIGURE 8.7

Using an option group to select a mutually exclusive value

Tip
Option groups can be bound only to numeric fields. When creating an option group for a Yes/No field (which
is actually stored as a number), set the Yes value to –1 and the No value to 0.

Using combo boxes and list boxes

Access has two types of controls — list boxes and combo boxes — for showing lists of data from

which a user can select. The list box is always open and ready for selection, whereas the combo

box has to be clicked to open the list for selection. Also, the combo box enables you to enter a

value that is not on the list and takes up less room on the form.

Because combo boxes are very efficient of space on the surface of a form, you may want to use (for

example) a combo box containing values from tblCustomers, as shown in Figure 8.8. The easi-

est way to do this is with the Combo Box Wizard. This wizard walks you through the steps of cre-

ating a combo box that looks up values in another table. To create a combo box, switch to Design

View and select the Combo Box command from the Design tab’s Controls group. Make sure the

Use Control Wizards command is selected.

FIGURE 8.8

Using a combo box to select a value from a list

Combo box Drop-down button

Drop-down list

Selected item