Bound combobox goes empty in Access Report

Question

I've got an Access Form with a combobox bound to a query that selects 2 fields. I managed to get the combobox showing up the query's second column by setting up in the combobox's Property Sheet the following: Column Number = 2 (with the first column width = 0); Bound Column = 1 (because it contains a value input for another query).

My problem is that when I open the Form, choose a value from the combobox and then save the Form as a Report, the combobox goes blank! In the Report I don't find the value previously selected for the combobox in the Form.

How can I fix it?

Why are you saving a form as a report and exactly how do you do that? — June7
June7 By going to File tab, Save As and instead of choosing Form, choose Report. That’s a way to save a Report starting from a Form. — Ernesto Orsino

mazoula mazoula · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-28T09:09:29

It appears you are looking to give the end user the ability to print what they see on the data entry form. But in access the printing functions are attached to reports. So we need a report that looks like the data entry form and some way to access the report from the data entry form. So add a print button or some such that will open the report. The report needs to look like the form so saving the form as a report is a good jump start but then some comboboxes don't show. Skip to the end for an explanation why. So we have to set the problem report comboboxes manually. One way is to pass parameters to the report when it opens:

Private Sub PrintButton_Click()
'look up DoCmd.OpenReport if you want to do something other than print preview
DoCmd.OpenReport ReportName:="ReportSavedFromForm", OpenArgs:=OriginalformComboBox.Value, View:=acViewPreview
End Sub  

Private Sub ReportSavedFromForm_Load()
reportCombobox = Me.OpenArgs
End Sub

As to why the combobox is blank or stuck on the first value, according to the following link reports are not supposed to be used for editing data. https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/14c6ec9a-53bd-4546-ba0e-597c41ca7cce/combo-box-drop-down-arrow-invisible-on-reports?forum=accessdev\

So the combobox dropdown arrow will not appear by design. I put this to the test in office 2016 and in the report header and report footer sections the combobox appears blank if the combobox is unbound. If the combobox is bound say to an ID the combobox behaves a little differently. It shows the first record but is just a textbox with no drop down arrow so only the first record ever shows. However in the details section while you still don't have the dropdown arrow the combo box still can be used to replace an id with a more friendly value

Bound combobox goes empty in Access Report

1 Answers