Chris Windsor wrote:
I hope the following describe what I'm trying to do:
I have created a tool to be used by product analysts when studying different
cell phone designs. Part of the tool is a set of 11 forms on a tab
structure with fields for various features a phone might have; there are
almost 100 of these features to choose from. Rather than a simple check
box, I used a combo box with the a value list of "Y, N, N/A, and ?"; I even
simplified entry by having a Y entered when the field was double clicked.
So, as the analyst researches the product, they go through the forms at
least entering "Y" where appropriate (I hope they will not leave any fields
blank, but change comes slowly). But that's not all; for almost every one
of the simple Y/N/NA/? answers, there is a note field where the analyst can
include add'l info about a certain feature.
Now, I may have been foolish due to lack of experience, but I have created
tables for each of these forms, with each combo box bound to a field in the
table. I then used some code to extract all fields that contained "Y",
translated it to the feature name, and concatenated these into one string
per table of features, so the resulting string looks like "featureA;
featureC; featureH". This goes into 11 tables (one table per form of data)
each with just a single text field to hold this resulting string. This
works; but my problem is when I build a query to bring all the strings
together into one line, if one of the 11 results tables is empty, nothing
shows up in the query. I've tried Nz() and using IIf( field="","-",
fieldvalue).
Any guidance and advice will be appreciated.
I admit I do not fully comprehend your problem. Ex:
I then used some code to extract all fields that contained "Y",
translated it to the feature name,
I don't know what translated to a feature name.
So I'll toss out something that may be totally irrelevent.
I might create another table. It would be a lookup table. It would
consist of an autonumber, a text field to hold the name of the text file
name on the form, and a feature description.
I would then create another table. This would be a summary table. It
would have a field to store the product (cell phone id), a field to hold
the text field name of the form, and whatever other fields you require.
When the record is saved, you scan all controls on your form. You could
enter something in the Tag property to define those fields to be stored
in the summary table. Highlight all of the fields that are y/n then
open up the property sheet, click Other tab, and in the Tag property
enter USETHIS.
Now you can scan all controls and if the tag is USETHIS check and see if
the value is Yes. If so, see if it exists in the summary table. If
not, add the field name and whatever else. If the value is not Y, see
if it exists in the summary table and delete it.
Then when you want a summary, you search for the cell phone and present
the features in the summary table. You can link that to the lookup
table based on the field name for descriptions.
This is pretty generic, but I think you get the idea where I'm coming from.
For what it's worth, since you have 11 tabs in your form, I might
consider using frames with checkboxes or radio buttons for selection. I
think 100 combo boxes would make working with the app a bit of a chore.
For example, on the left hand side of the form I might have 20-30
features down the side with the option group to the right of the
feature. You could stack up quite a few . Then on the right hand side
of the form, you could have a generic list of fields and the memo. As
you get focus to the feature, the fields and memo on the right hand side
get filled in for entries made for that feature. Just a thought in case
you are running out of space. I know if I were working as a user on
your app, I would prefer clicking on a checkbox/radio button vs pressing
on the drop down button and selecting the option from the combo. That
would slow me down as a user.