Access Tip - Ordering Items in a Form Combo Box

When building an Access database you may create what's called a combo box to provide a drop-down list of choices for a field in a form. Note that in the picture above, the list of choices is conveniently in alphabetical order.



However, in the table from which that combo box is getting its information the list is not alphabetical. Of course, you can choose to order that table alphabetically for that field, but this will NOT make the choices alphabetical in the combo box. So how does one do that?



Here are the steps:

• Open the form in design view
  
• Select the field you want to order and right click
  
• Select Properties
  
• Select Data- this will give you the image above
  
• Under Row Source, hover at the end of the row and click the little box with three dots
  
• This opens a query- see the image below
  
• Under Sort, choose Ascending

Make sure that you choose to save the changes made to the design of the form when prompted. Your Access drop down list should now be in alphabetical order.

An alternate way would be to build an intermediate query from which the combo box reads, but this way is more economical.

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