grouping radio buttons

[hawaiijeff]

OK, this is a newbie question that I can't seem to find the answer to. I'm in Access 2002 and trying to group radio buttons together so that only one of them can be clicked at a time. I can't seem to figure it out. This one won't require an expert to answer! Thanks.

[JustJim]

OK, this is a newbie question that I can't seem to find the answer to. I'm in Access 2002 and trying to group radio buttons together so that only one of them can be clicked at a time. I can't seem to figure it out. This one won't require an expert to answer! Thanks.

Use an Option Group instead of individual radio buttons and you'll be flying with the eagles!

Jim

[hawaiijeff]

OK, when I use the Option group it puts the object down there and tries to start the wizard for it. In my companies infinite wisdom they did not install all of the wizards. How do you manually get the radio buttons to be associated with that group?

[JustJim]

OK, when I use the Option group it puts the object down there and tries to start the wizard for it. In my companies infinite wisdom they did not install all of the wizards. How do you manually get the radio buttons to be associated with that group?

Ahh. OK turn the wizard button off and drop an option group onto your form. You will just get the frame. Grab a radio button and drop in inside the frame (make sure the frame changes colour before you drop the button). Do this as many times as you need and all the buttons will be associated with the option group.

Set the labels and values and you're off!

Jim

[hawaiijeff]

just dropping them into the existing frame didn't change anything. I waited for the frame to change colors before I dropped it, but it never did. Am I doing something wrong?

As a side note, I went down to the IT department and complained about all of the extras not being loaded and they gave me the disk so I loaded all of them up. Now I would like to know how to do it manually just for the sake of pure trivia (or if I ever experience it again and can't get access to the wizard).

Thanks.

[JustJim]

just dropping them into the existing frame didn't change anything. I waited for the frame to change colors before I dropped it, but it never did. Am I doing something wrong?

As a side note, I went down to the IT department and complained about all of the extras not being loaded and they gave me the disk so I loaded all of them up. Now I would like to know how to do it manually just for the sake of pure trivia (or if I ever experience it again and can't get access to the wizard).

Thanks.

You have an IT department whose thought processes don't go "No, we can't tell you anything because then you would have a little more knowledge and we would have a little less power". Wow!

Can't help you as to why you can't just drop radio buttons into the frame. It works on mine. At least you have the wizards now though.

Jim

[missinglinq]

Did you try doing the manual thing from scratch, or did you try to re-use the frame you had?

Like Jim, this works for me.

Staring from scratch:

1. Click and turn off the Control Wizards from the menu (icon has a magician's wand and fairy dust on it)
2. Place an Option Group frame on the form; an Option Group frame, not a standard frame!
3. Place a radio button (or checkbox, your choice) on the Option Group; as said, you need to wait until the inside of the frame changes from gray to black before releasing the button
4. Repeat this until you have all your buttons in place

If you now run your form, the buttons should function as an Option Group, i.e. only one button can be selected at a time

Now, for each button, goto Properties - Data and you can see the value of the particular button; Access sets it as 1, 2, 3 etc in the same order that they're added to the frame.

[JustJim]

Did you try doing the manual thing from scratch, or did you try to re-use the frame you had?

Like Jim, this works for me.

Staring from scratch:

1. Click and turn off the Control Wizards from the menu (icon has a magician's wand and fairy dust on it)
2. Place an Option Group frame on the form; an Option Group frame, not a standard frame!
3. Place a radio button (or checkbox, your choice) on the Option Group; as said, you need to wait until the inside of the frame changes from gray to black before releasing the button
4. Repeat this until you have all your buttons in place

If you now run your form, the buttons should function as an Option Group, i.e. only one button can be selected at a time

Now, for each button, goto Properties - Data and you can see the value of the particular button; Access sets it as 1, 2, 3 etc in the same order that they're added to the frame.

Thanks MissingLinq, you explain so clearly, it's a gift.

Jim

[hawaiijeff]

I'm still not getting that to work. When I put the Option group down first and then drop new radio buttons into the option group it works fine. I was trying to take existing radio buttons on a form and move them into an existing option group. I guess it's kind of stupid because I can just make new buttons and it works and I don't lose any substantial work that I've done. I guess this is one of those things where there's an order in which you do things, and I'm trying to do it out of order and it's just not going to work. Thanks for the explanation everyone.

[JustJim]

I'm still not getting that to work. When I put the Option group down first and then drop new radio buttons into the option group it works fine. I was trying to take existing radio buttons on a form and move them into an existing option group. I guess it's kind of stupid because I can just make new buttons and it works and I don't lose any substantial work that I've done. I guess this is one of those things where there's an order in which you do things, and I'm trying to do it out of order and it's just not going to work. Thanks for the explanation everyone.

Ah, yes if you were going to re-use buttons (perhaps you were approaching the 754 form-lifetime control limit!) then you would have to configure them yourself which dropping new ones in does automatically. Almost like the wizard come to think of it.

Anyhow, another problem solved, another happy developer.

Jim