Conditional formatting on a conditional form

[LizaHawkins]

I have a drop down box on a continuous form called (cmbItem)
When the users choose Option 6 (Other)or on the open event I wish to show another field txtOther which allows the user to give a description of what 'other' means but I only want to show the field for that record. (the user could potentially have more than one record as other)
Using conditional formatting I have managed to change the colours of the box so that the background is the same colour as the form unless other is chosen when it reverts to white. However I can't do the same with the border as this is not one of the options provided.
I need to use VBA but I am struggling to use the formatcondtions .add
Any help would be very appreciated.

[MikeTheBike]

Hi Liza

Would it not be better just to change the Visible property of txtOther using the AfterUpdate event of cmbItem, depending on what is selected in cmbItem ?


MTB

[jimatqsi]

Liza,
You have a few choices. One is to not use any border for the field. You'll find that option in the properties for the text box under Format. But most folks would simply make it visible or invisible whenever the combo box changes.

Add handling for event AfterUpdate of the combobox cmbItem. Then simply add this if/then block to the routine:

if cmbItem="Other" then
    me.txtOther.visible = true
else
    me.txtOther.visible=false
endif

You can choose to set the initial visible property at startup in the OnOpen event or in the properties of the object.

Jim
Jim

[LizaHawkins]

On a continuous form if I use this code it shows the text box to describe what other means for every line which doesn't look very nice.

[jimatqsi]

Oh, yes... if you are doing this in the detail of a continuous form, and you use an unbound object, you will see the same result for all detail lines at any one time. Best to put the unbound object in the header and make it clear it reflect the current line only.

Jim

[jimatqsi]

That still leaves the option of the no-border solution.

[LizaHawkins]

The problem is, there may be multi records where the user has chosen other and they want to be able to see all of the descriptions next to the record, so I can't put it in the header. I am sure I need to use add.formatcondt ions but despite looking on the web at some examples I havent been successful I am not sure if this is because I am using Access 2010, things seem to change a bit in access 2013.

[jimatqsi]

Eliminating the border doesn't solve the problem?

[LizaHawkins]

Yes, thats what I have now, but the background is cream and the text box is white so its very difficult to see.
Everywhere else there are boarders round text boxes I want the users to update so it just looks like I forgot this bit. Its a fudge and it will do, I just wanted to see if anyone could help me use the add.formatcondi tion. The final product will look more professional and I will learn something new which is always a bonus.