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Microsoft Access database has lots of useful features and one of them is combo boxes. Using combo boxes will improve the look and feel of your Access forms. In order to understand the work of combo boxes, let’s consider the example of countries.

Access forms may require different information like name, address or country. And as we know some countries’ names can be recorded in few ways, for example the United Kingdom is also known as the UK, England, Britain, and Great Britain. And if you have entered a different name of the country every time you wanted to record the United Kingdom, it might cause some problems. If you want to run a query and search for all customers in the UK, you will get a wrong result. The query will show you all the customers registered under “the UK”, but will not show other records you might have entered as “Britain” or “England”, for example. You will also have the same problem with the United States.

Another problem, which may arise, is an incorrect spelling of the name of the country. One time you might record country as Brazil, and the next time you might spell it as Brasil. And again you will get wrong results in your search.

The solution to this problem is using a dropdown box or MS Access combo box. Using combo boxes will also speed up the process of data entry, because you will not have to type the data in, but select it from the list.

MS Access combo box can use table or a query as its data source. It is probably better to use a query, just because you can filter the data you need in a query. Imagine that you need only European countries in your form, so using a query you can set the needed criteria. Besides, queries work faster than tables, which will also improve your performance.

It is not that hard to create a combo box for any type of information you store in your database. And you can also use the Access Wizard for this purpose, which makes the process even easier.

When you use a combo box in Microsoft Access, you don’t have to worry about entering the wrong information in the database, which often leads to problems. Every record you have to create in Access database will always have the same items to select from, which prevents typing in the same information in different variations. You will simply select the one correct data item from a combo box and your data as well as the form will be more consistent. Learning how to create and use combo boxes in Access can prevent many database problems and save time.

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You don’t necessarily have to use programming to make MS Access more automated. You can create an Access macro in order to automate a lot of database tasks, which will add much more functionality to your Access database. MS Access allows you to assign a macro to a command button instead of using a toolbar commands. This way you will be just one click away from printing a report.

There are different Access versions and depending on the one you are using, some of the naming may differ from the way it is described here, but he meaning is mostly the same, so you will be able to define what to do in your database editions.

First, you should go to the macro designer and type in the name of a new Access macro in the Macro Name column. If you are going to print an invoice report, for example, you could name your macro something like “PrintInvoiceReport”. After you have entered the name, you should click on the arrow to open a drop down menu and select the Open Report action. Now, if you go to the bottom of the screen, you will see a box where you can enter action arguments. Here you will have to enter the report you need to open. Now you should choose the desirable report view. So, if you want to preview the report only, you can select the option to print preview, if not, then select the print option right away.

There is also a comment column, but this one is optional, even though it can be useful for entering some details about what macro is actually doing. It will be very useful to you as well as other developers and database users, who will also have it clear about the macro purpose.

Now, after accomplishing the above steps, you should only save the macro and name it. Name it differently from the designer version. You can temporarily name it Macro1, but always rename it later.

The next stage is wiring the MS Access macro to the command button. You can use already created form or if you don’t have the suitable one, you can create a blank form and go to its design view. Then you can use the wizard and follow its steps to create a command button and move it to the form. When the wizard starts, you should select the miscellaneous form option on the left. Then, in the right hand box, you should select the option to run macro. Now click Next to move on and select the macro you want to run and click Finish.

Now you can run the form and click the command button. You should see your report opening in the selected view. Now you can use this powerful tool for automating your MS Access database.

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And a final piece of advice – today the Internet technologies give you a really unique chance to choose exactly what you need for the best price on the market. Funny, but most of the people don’t use this opportunity. In real life it means that you should use all the tools of today to get the info that you need.

Search Google or other search engines. Visit social networks and have a look on the accounts that are relevant to your topic. Go to the niche forums and participate in the discussion. All this will help you to create a true vision of this market. Thus, giving you a real opportunity to make a wise and nicely balanced decision.

And also sign up to the RSS feed on this blog, because we will everything possible to keep this blog tuned up to the day with new publications about microsoft access database industry.