We are going to present this article is a different format. John Hertzler and Tom Mills have teamed up to show the difference between using Alpha Five version 5 and Access for the task of displaying multiple selection list box to a user. The selections by the user will then be used to batch print mailing labels. Clicking the link below will take you to a demonstration of how this is done with Alpha Five version. Following that is a description of how this functionality is achieved in Access.

Click here to view John Hertzler's demonstration of the 'Alpha Five Way'.

Tom Mills describes how he achieves this functionality using Microsoft Access:

We want to produce mailing labels for events. When we do, it usually consists of: Combine X Y and Z lists and make sure there are no dupes. So we make a combo box with the data source equal to a query:



If we weren't combining lists we could do this in macros. But since we want to combine lists, we have to go to code, and each version of the report duplicates the code. Here is the code for one report: 

Private Sub print5160_Click()
On Error GoTo Err_print5160_Click
 Dim db As DAO.Database
  Dim loqd As DAO.QueryDef
  Dim vItm As Variant
  Dim stWhat As String
  Dim stCriteria As String
  Dim stSQL As String
  Dim counter As Integer
  
    stWhat = "":    stCriteria = ",": counter = 0
    
    For Each vItm In Me.CatSelectCombo.ItemsSelected
        counter = counter + 1
        stWhat = stWhat & "'" & Me!CatSelectCombo.ItemData(vItm) & "'"
        stWhat = stWhat & stCriteria
    Next vItm
    If counter = 0 Then
        MsgBox "You did not select a choice from the listbox!"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    Me!txtCriteria = CStr(Left$(stWhat, Len(stWhat) - Len(stCriteria)))
    
    stSQL = "SELECT DISTINCT Main.Envelope1, Main.Envelope2, Main.EnvelopeTitle, Main.Envelope3, Main.Envelope4, "
    stSQL = stSQL & "Main.Envelope5, Main.[First Name], Main.[Middle Initial], Main.Envelope6,"
    stSQL = stSQL & "Main.[Last Name], Main.[Company Name], Main.Address, Main.Suite, Main.City, "
    stSQL = stSQL & "Main.State, Main.[Zip Code] FROM Main INNER JOIN Categories ON Main.ID = Categories.ID "
    stSQL = stSQL & "WHERE Categories.Category IN (" & Me!txtCriteria & ");"
    
    Set db = CurrentDb
    Set loqd = db.QueryDefs("LabelQuery")
    With loqd
        .SQL = stSQL
        .Close
    End With
    Set loqd = Nothing
    Set db = Nothing
     
 'Opens label report to print labels, then closes form
 DoCmd.OpenReport "Labels 5160", acPreview, "", ""
 DoCmd.Close acForm, "CatSelector"

Exit_print5160_Click:
    Exit Sub

Err_print5160_Click:
    MsgBox Err.Description
    Resume Exit_print5160_Click
   
End Sub




Need we say more?