Database Reference
In-Depth Information
13
In the
Field Properties
area, click the
Input Mask
property, enter the following, and
then press
Enter
:
>L<????????????????
(16 question marks)
The Field Size setting must be greater than the maximum number of characters
allowed by the input mask.
The greater than symbol (>) forces all following text to be uppercase. The
L
requires a
letter. The less than symbol (<) forces all following text to be lowercase. Each question
mark allows any letter or no letter. The total number of characters (17) is one fewer
than the maximum number allowed in the field by this field's Field Size property (18).
TIP
When you press Enter, the Property Update Options button appears. Clicking this
button displays a list of options. In this case, the only options are to apply the input
mask everywhere fShortText is used (which is called
propagating the field property
)
and to display Access Help to find out more about this task. This button disappears
when you edit any other property or move to a different field, so you can ignore it.
6
Let's test this input mask.
14
Save the table, and then switch to
Datasheet
view.
15
Delete the current entry in the
fShortText
field, enter
smith
, and press
Tab
.
16
Replace the entry with
SMITH
, and then with
McDonald
. Notice that regardless of
how you enter the name, only its first letter is capitalized.
TIP
You can create custom input masks and have the Input Mask wizard store them
for future use. On the wizard's first page, click Edit List, and in the record navigation
bar of the Customize Input Mask Wizard dialog box, click the New Record button.
Then enter the information for the custom mask, and click Close.
CLEAN UP
Close the FieldTest table. Keep the GardenCompany06 database open for
use in later exercises.
