I have a pop-up list providing a list of repair descriptions. I made
this field an auto-enter calc, so that it just stores the associated
repair code in that field.

The data entry folks would like to also have the mouse-free option of
tabbing into that field to enter a code by hand, rather than selecting
it from the long list.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,
-cat

On May 31, 2:04 am, cat <cathyty... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
p.s.
This field is going to be entered in a portal (there may be many
repairs per machine).

In article <1180602244.731407.227030 (AT) i13g2000prf (DOT) googlegroups.com>, cat
<cathytyner (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

I'm guessing you really mean that you've got a pop-up lst field of
descriptions and when the user choose a description ANOTHER field
auto-enters the appropriate Code.

It is possible to create a system where you can enter either one or the
other field's data and have the opposite field auto-enter the
appropriate value, but it gets rather messy. It might be better to let
user enter just the Code and have the Description as a Calculation (not
Auto-enter, unless using a newer version of FileMaker where Auto-enter
fields can re-calculate themselves) that retrieves the appropriate
value for that Code. New users will of course need a printed list of
the error codes and descriptions so they can find the correct one.

Of course, if you use a pop-up List rather than a pop-up Menu, then
users can still use the keyboard for data entry - pop-up List fields
are stilll part of the Tab order and once in the field you can quickly
type the first few letters and FileMaker will go to the first matching
option and you can use the keyboard arrow keys to move up and down the
list, and then pressing Return will accept the highlighted value ... or
at least it does on the Mac, I'm not sure about Windows computers.


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Ok, I've since learned that you can press ESC on the keyboard and this
allows you to type over the pop-up field. This only works if I have
the layout field option for the pop-up UNselected : "do not replace
existing data".

This is a problem, because I have this field set to be an auto-enter
calc (to store and view the repair code rather than the repair
description), and my auto-enter calc won't work unless "do not replace
existing data" IS selected!

To clarify, I've been able to set this up so the user can either type
over the decription, because the auto-calc isn't replacing the
description with the code (which I can't have - I have to have the
code), or select the description from the list, which then stores the
code in that field and is not editable - the user can't type into the
field.

I need the pop-up list of repair descriptions which stores the code
only, AND the option to get into the field to just enter a code (via
keyboard only), all to be done via a portal...(don't know if that
matters).

Still stuck.

On May 31, 3:07 am, cat <cathyty... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Thanks Harry - This is a good enough compromise! I just need to format
my value list so that the codes appear first, so FM sees those as the
first matching typed in options.

Wow, finally solved - thank you so much.