For example, everybody in Geneva can help you find the “Hôtel des Bergues” or the “Hôtel du Rhône”, but only professionals will know that they are currently called “Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva” and “Mandarin Oriental Hotel du Rhone” (in typical Geneva Frenglish!).
I settled on hotel names, because a hotel is almost never know by its full name. This is true for any search in lengthy descriptions, but I wanted something simple. I needed sample data for which an alphabetical sort doesn't really help in finding a specific record.
This article was written for Access developers who need to create a search box with a professional look and feel, and not for novice users creating their first criteria form.
Several advanced techniques are used, which are not always explained in full. It must be said that the complete solution is rather technical. So, even if that aspect isn't what you are looking for, you might still be interested in the search mechanism and in the attached demo database. This technique is very well received by users, even if they have to press Tab in order to see the result of the search. However, if that option is turned off, what remains is a more classical search box, but using the combo's drop-down section as search result window. The specific “while you type” aspect might not be suitable for every application. Note that this is different from the built-in auto-complete feature, which works only if the user always types the first letters of the information displayed in the combo. This allows to narrow down the search until the desired information is located. A combo box is used to show the results of the current search, and is updated “on the fly”, while the focus remains in the control. Instead, the present article focuses on the user interface. The search used here is deliberately not optimized and is only fitting for very small tables (let's say below 10'000 records). Naturally, the unnamed search engine applies very advanced technology, using massive pre-indexed tables with complex relationships, and search statistics.
After all, if their favourite search engine juggles with tens of thousand keywords while they type, and suggests matching phrases on the fly, why shouldn't they expect the same from your application? Today's users almost expect this to happen in all search boxes.