Creating custom Input Masks...

Morning All,

I'm trying to ensure that when the user enters a number on a form, the
database automatically leaves a space after the 3rd number. I've tried
to do this using input masks, but when I tab to the text box, the ___
_____ shows up and I can't enter anything at all.

Cheers

Reg

Regnab wrote:[color=blue]
> Morning All,
>
> I'm trying to ensure that when the user enters a number on a form, the
> database automatically leaves a space after the 3rd number. I've tried
> to do this using input masks, but when I tab to the text box, the ___
> _____ shows up and I can't enter anything at all.
>
> Cheers
>
> Reg
>[/color]

Is your control source (field from the table) a number field or text
field? If number, change it.

You might want to write a function to insert the space into a field that
contains numeric. Since it appears you don't have any control over
where the 3 numbers appear; 123 56 or A123 56 or AB123 56 then an input
mask would be a bit worthless don't you think?

Cheers for the response Salad, but I think you may have misunderstood
what I meant. The space is at the 3rd number - the 3rd character. Eg
982 000039485483. And at the moment, I believe it is a text field. It's
a number which comes from an RFID tag on an animal.... all cattle in
Australia now have a RFID device which when scanned produces this 16
digit (15 digits and a space) number. From time to time they get
entered by hand = voila the reason I'm trying to use the input mask.

Regnab wrote:[color=blue]
> Cheers for the response Salad, but I think you may have misunderstood
> what I meant. The space is at the 3rd number - the 3rd character. Eg
> 982 000039485483. And at the moment, I believe it is a text field. It's
> a number which comes from an RFID tag on an animal.... all cattle in
> Australia now have a RFID device which when scanned produces this 16
> digit (15 digits and a space) number. From time to time they get
> entered by hand = voila the reason I'm trying to use the input mask.
>[/color]
I created a text field on a form. For the input mask I have
###\ ############
and it appears to work OK.

Open up the form in design mode and open up the property sheet for the
text field. Then click on the data tab. See waht you have as the input
mask. Next, under the input mask you'll see Enabled and Locked. Verify
Enabled is True and Locked is False. It's quite possible Locked is set
to True thus allowing you to have focus to the field but not the ability
to enter data.