Access 2016 - Cannot write on a text box.

Question

Cannot write on a text box.

I started designing my layout for my Access 2016 dB, lots of field labels and fieldnames are needed. Additionally, a couple of text boxes are needed.

I clicked on 'Design' and selected 'Text box'. Once it is auto added to the canvas where you place the field labels and fieldnames, I double clicked on that text box and tried to type on it, but nothing happened, it doesn’t let me type anything into that text box.

How can I create plain text to be added above or below or anywhere in the design area?

Your feedback will be appreciated.

DavesterBloomington

Answer 1

What is the control source of the text box?

"lots of field labels and fieldnames are needed"

This is an indication that your database is not designed properly. Relational databases should be tall and thin, not wide.

Access permits you to store line feeds in a text field so you don't really need multiple fields for the address. You also show multiple date fields which should probably be in a child table.

Edit:  Whoops I missed a couple of points that John didn't. John is right that Previous addresses would be in a child table. Whenever you have fieldnames with numbers like your Previous Address fields, that is called a repeating group and violates normalization rules.

I also missed that you were trying to type in the control in Design mode. That's why you can't.

Answer 2

It looks like you may be starting at the wrong end of the project! The FIRST thing you should do is to set up a properly normalized set of Tables to store your data. As Scott says, this will involve more than one table with data in each (for example, rather than three fields for previous addresses, you would have a PreviousAddresses table related one-to-many to the master table). Designing Forms and Reports comes AFTER you have tables in which to store the data. Building a Report first, and then fitting the database to it, is a bit like putting the molding and trim on the bedroom walls before your house foundation is poured!

The immediate problem is that you can't type data into a Textbox in Design view. That's not the purpose of a textbox! A Textbox has a "Control Source" property which tells Access which Field (from the form/report's Recordsource) should be pulled from the table and displayed. What information do you want in this textbox? Something variable from the table, or some constant "boilerplate" text?