Pop-up list - use selection's ID

[Stick]

I have a pop-up menu where the user will select a section by viewing a list of text names for these sections - this is coming from another table of sections which have associated ID's.

How can I use the ID of the selected item rather than the text that the user sees?

Thanks

[ESpringer]

Do you mind if the user sees the ID? Especially if the IDs are all the same length and relatively short, you can just make a value list of IDs with the "Also display values from..." option pointing to the text names, and sorting according to the second field (text names) for better visual scanning. When a selection is made, only the ID will show for that field (though you probably want the name showing closeby in a related field to help confirm choice).

I've seen postings from people who want to hide a numerical ID in such a value list and have done things like creating a font that reduces numbers to zero width in order to make them not show up in such value lists. Perhaps they never see the ID at all: a related field displays simply the name, and the data entry person feels as though the id (if it appears at all) was looked up from the name.

The disadvantage -- compared to a system where the name is actually selected from among text values which then prompts lookup of ID in a separate field which is the real key field -- is that users cannot type into a true ID value list to scroll it towards the desired text name. If your list is long, that might make a decisive difference.

[Stick]

Thanks for that info.

I used the "also display values from.." option and that works well in the application environment. However, when this is transfered to IWP only the ID's show - which isn't helpful for the user who will not know what sections those ID's relate to.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Emma