Combo box text limit off 255 characters

[Bradon]

I have a series of combo boxes on a form which work well but they limit the text selected to 255 characters. Is there any way of extending the character limit. I tried changing the field to "Memo" but it wouldn't have it; when i did it it blanked out the lookup section.


I know I can link several fields together in the report but I want a method that the user only has to select one comment to get all the text needed.

Ideally I am trying to get 1500 characters.

 

[Mudface]

I don't think you can do that. In any case you'll likely exceed the maximum allowable form width. Why do you need so many characters displayed in a combobox?

 

[Bradon]

I don't actually need to display all of the text - just need the ability to print it in a report. 1000 characters would be useful....

The people using the form need to write about this amount of data in one field - they have difficulty understanding that 2 or more can be joined in a report!

 

[Mudface]

If it's for a report, then surely a textbox would do, or am I missing something here?

 

[mdmilner]

I'm not sure what the actual limit is, but when I checked, vba string variables can go beyond 255 characters (beyond 1500).

I've never tried this, but I think the theory works.

What if you used the Keypress event to check the textbox value length. Once it hits 255 characters, move the focus to a second textbox and let the user continue typing without any break.

To make it a little cleaner, you might use InStrRev to look for a space (and hopefully the break between words) allowing you to identify the last 'full' word typed and move everything else into the second textbox.

Mike

 

[mdmilner]

As a completely different thought.
What if you opened up Notepad from within Access and stored the contents when exiting/done?

By Notepad, I'm referring to the MS-Windows application Notepad.exe.
As a second thought, opening MS Word might be better since you can control it's operation via VBA.

 

[Bradon]

The data needs to display in a combo box on a form.

The VBA route sounds interesting but I haven'y a clue where to start. Any chance of a pointer or two???

Changing tact a bit, do you know any good books or online courses for VBA?

Thanks again for your help.

Gordon

 

[bat17]

If you want to store a lot of data store it in a memo field. You could probably then use code to match the combo's field to the first 255 characters from the memo field or you could just let the users add a useful reference in the combo.

HTH

Peter

 

[Bradon]

The original data is already stored in a memo field but I need to display it all in a form and print out to a report from the holding field of the combo box - it is the display on a form and printout from the holding field that I need to enlarge beyond 255 characters.

 

[bat17]

You will not be able to show more than the 255 limit in a combobox or textfield. For the report it would not matter anyway as you can just print the memo field.
If your problem is one of selecting the data from a standard list to associate with a document then you may need to do something like a continuous sub form and use that for record selection. Anyway a combobox with 1000 characters would be almost impossible to use!

Peter
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