G'day Sandy

Is your Combo "LimitToList" set at Yes or No. if Yes, then set it to No.

HTH
Mark.

My programming has always been in a healthcare environment and this type of
problem arises from time to time. The obvious answer is that no patient
should be in the system unless their GP is known, provided they have one,
which is not always true! My solution to the problem was similar to yours,
having a record in my physicians' table for "None/Unknown" which allows the
work to go forward, while letting the staff know that the GP is not known and
should be entered if the info becomes available. The other problem we run
into in Home Health is when there appears to be no "Ordering Physician." This
field HAS
to be required, as it's obviously illegal to be providing services without a
valid order from a physician! It's amazing how quickly we went from only
having an ordering physician about 50% of the time to ALWAYS having one, when
the powers that be understood we couldn't fulfill an order without it!

G'day again Sandy

Just remembered 2 handy peices of code.

1. will allow you to enter any patients previous doctor's name into the
combo, if it does not match what you have in your doctors table it will
allow you to include it automatically, you can then enter all the doctors
information in the table later. 2. will auto case what you write.
'
Private Sub DrName_NotInList(NewData As String, Response As Integer)

Dim db As Database, rs As Recordset, strMsg As String

strMsg = NewData & " is not listed !  Do you want to add Him/Her to the
list?"
If MsgBox(strMsg, vbQuestion + vbYesNo, "Add New Doctor ?") = vbNo Then
   Response = acDataErrContinue
Else
   Set db = CurrentDb()
   Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("YourDoctorsTable", dbOpenDynaset)
   On Error Resume Next
   rs.AddNew
       rs!TheDrName = NewData
       rs!TheDrName = MixedCase(TheDrName) *********
   rs.Update
   If Err Then
       MsgBox "An error occurred. Please try again."
       Response = acDataErrContinue
   Else
       Response = acDataErrAdded
   End If
End If
Me.Form.Refresh
End Sub

*********
Add the MixedCase Function in a module call it what you like, I use
MixedCase (Go figure :-) ) p.s. (Don't include * in your code above)

Copy & Paste the whole thing into the module including the original creators
details

'************** Code Start *************
'This code was originally written by Jay Holovacs.
'It is not to be altered or distributed,
'except as part of an application.
'You are free to use it in any application,
'provided the copyright notice is left unchanged.
'
'Code Courtesy of
'Jay Holovacs
'
Public Function Mixed_Case(str As Variant) As String
'returns modified string, first character of each word us uppercase
'all others lower case
Dim ts As String, ps As Integer, char2 As String
   If IsNull(str) Then
       Mixed_Case = ""
       Exit Function
   End If
   str = Trim(str) 'added 11/22/98
   If Len(str) = 0 Then
       Mixed_Case = ""
       Exit Function
   End If
   ts = LCase$(str)
   ps = 1
   ps = first_letter(ts, ps)
   special_name ts, 1 'try to fix the beginning
   Mid$(ts, 1) = UCase$(Left$(ts, 1))
   If ps = 0 Then
       Mixed_Case = ts
       Exit Function
   End If
   While ps <> 0
       If is_roman(ts, ps) = 0 Then 'not roman, apply the other rules
           special_name ts, ps
           Mid$(ts, ps) = UCase$(Mid$(ts, ps, 1)) 'capitalize the first
letter
       End If
       ps = first_letter(ts, ps)
   Wend
   Mixed_Case = ts
End Function
Private Sub special_name(str As String, ps As Integer)
'expects str to be a lower case string, ps to be the
'start of name to check, returns str modified in place
'modifies the internal character (not the initial)

Dim char2 As String
char2 = Mid$(str, ps, 2) 'check for Scots Mc
If (char2 = "mc") And Len(str) > ps + 1 Then '3rd char is CAP
   Mid$(str, ps + 2) = UCase$(Mid$(str, ps + 2, 1))
End If

char2 = Mid$(str, ps, 2) 'check for ff
If (char2 = "ff") And Len(str) > ps + 1 Then 'ff form
   Mid$(str, ps, 2) = LCase$(Mid$(str, ps, 2))
End If

char2 = Mid$(str, ps + 1, 1) 'check for apostrophe as 2nd char
If (char2 = "'") Then '3rd char is CAP
   Mid$(str, ps + 2) = UCase$(Mid$(str, ps + 2, 1))
End If

Dim char3 As String
char3 = Mid$(str, ps, 3) 'check for scots Mac
If (char3 = "mac") And Len(str) > ps + 1 Then 'Mac form
   Mid$(str, ps + 3) = UCase$(Mid$(str, ps + 3, 1))
End If

Dim char4 As String
char4 = Mid$(str, ps, 4) 'check for Fitz
If (char4 = "fitz") And Len(str) > ps + 1 Then 'Fitz form
   Mid$(str, ps + 4) = UCase$(Mid$(str, ps + 4, 1))
End If

End Sub
Private Function first_letter(str As String, ps As Integer) As Integer
'ps=starting point to search (starts with character AFTER ps)
'returns next first letter, 0 if no more left
'modified 6/18/99 to handle hyphenated names
Dim p2 As Integer, p3 As Integer, s2 As String
   s2 = str
   p2 = InStr(ps, str, " ") 'points to next blank, 0 if no more
   p3 = InStr(ps, str, "-") 'points to next hyphen, 0 if no more
   If p3 <> 0 Then
       If p2 = 0 Then
           p2 = p3
       ElseIf p3 < p2 Then
           p2 = p3
       End If
   End If
   If p2 = 0 Then
       first_letter = 0
       Exit Function
   End If
   'first move to first non blank, non punctuation after blank
   While is_alpha(Mid$(str, p2)) = False
       p2 = p2 + 1
       If p2 > Len(str) Then 'we ran off the end
           first_letter = 0
           Exit Function
       End If
   Wend
   first_letter = p2
End Function
Public Function is_alpha(ch As String)
'returns true if this is alphabetic character
'false if not
   Dim C As Integer
   C = Asc(ch)
   Select Case C
       Case 65 To 90
           is_alpha = True
       Case 97 To 122
           is_alpha = True
       Case Else
           is_alpha = False
   End Select

End Function
Private Function is_roman(str As String, ps As Integer) As Integer
'starts at position ps, until end of word. If it appears to be
'a roman numeral, than the entire word is capped in passed back
'string, else no changes made in string
'returns 1 if changes were made, 0 if no change
Dim mx As Integer, p2 As Integer, flag As Integer, I As Integer
   mx = Len(str) 'just so we don't go off the edge
   p2 = InStr(ps, str, " ") 'see if there is another space after this word
   If p2 = 0 Then
       p2 = mx + 1
   End If
   'scan to see if any inappropriate characters in this word
   flag = 0
   For I = ps To p2 - 1
       If InStr("ivxIVX", Mid$(str, I, 1)) = 0 Then
           flag = 1
       End If
   Next I
   If flag Then
       is_roman = 0
       Exit Function 'this is not roman numeral
   End If
   Mid$(str, ps) = UCase$(Mid$(str, ps, p2 - ps))
   is_roman = 1
End Function
'************** Code End  *************

Once this code is in place you can call on it to auto case any written text
in a field.

Have fun

Regards
Mark.