Forum Discussion
Problem with combobox form controls
A fix for this problem is in the works. See this AccessForever article.
wove5, thank you. I have a similar problem on 11, the combobox did not autofill. After playing with it, I noticed that it did fill if I used a number or the letter a to start. After reading your post I checked and you are right. The combobox does not autofill after the 100th or so entry. I have both 10 and 11 computers and it is only happening on the 11. When I port into my 11 computer from my 10, the combobox does not work on 11, but does work on the 10. It is a Win 11 problem. You have isolated the problem, and Microsoft should be able to fix this. Otherwise, I have to revert to 10.
A fix for this problem is in the works. See this AccessForever article.
- My working theory is:
- the combo box problem was caused by a change introduced some little time ago to 'modern' versions of Office. Unfortunately that change also impacts older versions of Access (how I do not know). By contrast, machines with a most recent version of Office that is 'old' (e.g. Office 2010) never seem to have hit the combo box problem with any versions of Access.
- the Combo box problem has now (I understand, can't confirm) been fixed for the 'modern' versions of Office, but in a way that leaves the problem unfixed for older versions of Access.
- I think you will hit the unfixed problem if you run modern Office and a legacy version of Access. Which unfortunately is my situation.
- I still think that as Microsoft 'broke' old Access (including, but I suspect not only, Access 97) by this change, they should fix it, just as they have (apparently) fixed it for modern Office. So you are not a fan of "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run"? Sorry.
I was going to construct a simple accdb for you, but it appears as if the bug in Win 11 has been fixed. Thank you for contributing to this short lived dilemma.
Gene
To be clear, I think we don't need to resort to conspiracies to explain anything Microsoft does or doesn't do.
If you have a sample accdb, running under Access 2016, which exhibits this problem, please share it. I think I can spin up a VM with A2016 on it to check it out.
- If it is happening on Pro 2016 (extended support end date is 2025), would that change your mind?
Clearly I am more conspiratorial than you regarding Microsoft's motives, and yet I still use it.
Thanks for the suggestion though. I will definitely look into it. I don't think I said that at all. What I DID say is that Access97 is long out of support. That's not the same as saying Microsoft doesn't care about all of its users. Microsoft has made a lot of regrettable moves over the years, to be sure. Not providing updates to a version of Access now more 26 years old is not one of them, IMO.
That said, the solution for someone who does want to continue to use that software might well be to create a Class to replace some or all of the form and control Class events to provide those features.
You could add "TOP 100" to a SELECT statement in the query which provides records to the combo box to limit the number of records returned, although I'm unsure if that is a universally appropriate cut-off point.
I'm wrapping up editing on the video from Kent Gorrell's presentation to my User Groups a couple of days ago on that very topic. It primarily focused on interface considerations. However, one of the things that occurred to me during editing was that it is also applicable to data and logic tasks as well. This could be one of those. The video will be available on YouTube in a couple days, if all goes to plan.
If someone needs to maintain Access97 in a production environment, custom code using VBA classes might be an excellent way to help make that happen.
George, I think you hit the nail on the head when you point out that Microsoft doesn't care about all of its users.
I am wondering if a solution to the problem would be to have the combobox create an event that on the first letter entered (I don't know how to make it exclusive to the first letter only), utilizes a query as its row source that limits the list of possibilities to 99 using the first letter as starting point. Unless you have more than 100 entries with a particular letter, that should work. Is there a way to create a row source limited to a specified number of entries? Again, I just don't know how to work around the "event" occurring with every letter entered.
- Apparently, then, you have a different problem in the Access 97 installation. I mentioned it only because of the recent development in another case.
Given that Access 97 is well past end of support, I'm not sure how much attention it would get. George_HepworthThanks, but I believe that Access97 only uses ANSI-87 SQL anyway and cannot use ANSI-92 SQL, so this won't help me.
I remain puzzled how a Windows 11 change in 2022 has caused such a problem for Access 97?
Really hoping for a solution!...
- We discovered late yesterday that there is a second issue that may be involved. If your accdb has ANSI 92 Compatibility turned on, it will cause the combo box autoexpand problem.
If you have ANSI 92 Compatibility turned on, you can decide if you need it or not, and if not, turn it off. That may break other functionality if you have queries dependent on it, so evaluate and decide accordingly. I have now updated my modern Office (2021) with 2312, but the problem persists with Access 97. The problem is a new one, so it is definitely not something that changed inside Access 97, it is something imposed from outside, so I think a fix is reasonable to expect.
Current channel is the latest "normal" version of Office 365 (Click to Run) not the insiders version. And as it is an update for Office, not for Windows, I assume that the problem will persist in Access 97.
What is this 'current channel' and how does a normal Windows 11 user obtain this fix? Will it work for Access 97 (which is affected by this (newish) bug but is of course way outside any type of support warranty)? Thanks for your response.
Once the problem has been solved, I would like to make a final remark, because since I started to suffer from this bug, which in certain contexts has been a serious impediment and has complicated my work a lot, until it has been solved, it has been neither more nor less than a year and a half and honestly it does not seem reasonable to me that Access users are so abandoned....
In any case, thanks to whoever is responsible for the solution. It could have been worse and still not fixed as it happens with other bugs known for years.I just received version 2312 on the current channel and it certainly seems to be fixed.
Thanks for the interest in this issue.
