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Clear an Access combo box for entering the next record

By Mary Ann Richardson and Susan Harkins, Special to ZDNet Asia
Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:56 AM

Have Access clear the selection from a combo box in a data entry form so that you start fresh with each new record. See how to make this user-friendly tweak.

Microsoft Access

Clear an Access combo box for entering the next record

You've created a data entry form that uses a combo box, as shown in Figure A. However, when the user clicks the next record button, the previous record's combo box selection is still visible.

Figure A

To clear the entry for entering the next record, follow these steps:

Open the form in Design view.
Click the Form properties button at the top left of the form.
In the Event tab, click the On Current property box and select Event Procedure (Figure B).

Figure B

Click the Build button.
Enter the following code at the prompt:

Private Sub Form_Current()
On Error Go to ErrorHandler
Me![cboname of box]= Null
ErrorHandlerExit
Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
MsgBox "Error No: " & Err.Number &": Description: " & Err.Description
Resume ErrorHandlerExit
End Sub

Press [Alt]+Q

Now when the user moves to the next record, the previous selection will not appear.

Microsoft Excel

Add data to an Excel worksheet from a Word table

If you need to analyze data that exists only in a Word table, you can use Excel's Import External Data feature to update your worksheet whenever the data within the Word table changes.

For example, at the end of the month you receive an e-mail with an updated listing of all YTD invoices in a Word document (Figure A).

Figure A

You would like to use Excel's tools for analyzing the data, but you don't want to spend time entering the new data each month. Follow these steps to have Excel update your worksheet for you:

Open the copy of the Word document you received as an e-mail attachment.
Select the table.
Go to Insert | Table and click on Convert Table To Text. In Excel 2007, click the Layout Tab under Table Tools and click Convert To Text in the Data group.
Click OK.
Go to File | Save As and save a plain text copy of the file as Import_table.txt.
Open a blank workbook in Excel.
Go to Data | Import External Data and click Import Data. In Excel 2007, go to Data | Get External Data | From Text (Figure B).

Figure B

Navigate to and select Import_table.txt .
Click the Import button.
Click Next button twice (Figure C).

Figure C

Click Finish.
Click OK.
Save the workbook (Figure D) as Import_from_Word.

Figure D

Now let's say you receive an update to the Word document (Figure E).

Figure E

Update the data in the Import_from_Word file by following these steps:

Open the document containing the updated table.
Go to Insert | Table and click on Convert Table To Text.
Go to File | Save As and save a plain text copy of the file as Import_table2.txt.
Close Word.
Open the Import_from_Word workbook. In Excel 2007, click the Options button and then select the Enable button and click OK.
Go to Data | Refresh Data. In Excel 2007, click the Data tab and then click Refresh (Figure F).

Figure F

Navigate to and select the Import2_table.txt document.
Click the Import button.

The new data has now been added to your worksheet, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G

Microsoft Word

Return quickly to document text after inserting a footnote

When you insert a footnote or endnote, Word moves the insertion point to the footnote/endnote area. You enter the appropriate text and then what? Word seems to leave you stranded. There’s no dedicated method that returns you to the main document precisely where you were working when you inserted the footnote or endnote.

There is, however, a keyboard shortcut that you can use: [Shift]+[F5].

The [Shift]+[F5] keyboard shortcut cycles through your last edits. After entering the footnote or endnote text, just press [Shift]+[F5] and most of the time, it will take you directly to the insertion point.

However, it's important to note that this shortcut does not take you back to the point where you inserted the current footnote or endnote. Rather, it will take you back to your last edit.

Almost every time, the insertion point and the last edit spot will be the same--that's why this trick works. If the shortcut takes you some place other than the insertion point, try pressing [Shift]+[F5] until you reach the right spot.