Question

We have 2 databases that should have matching tables. I have an (In-Production) report that compares these fields and displays them to the user in an MS-Access form (continuous form style) for correction.

This is all well and good except it can be difficult to find the differences. How can I format these fields to bold/italicize/color the differences?

"The lazy dog jumped over a brown
fox."
"The lazy dog jumped over the
brown fox."

(It’s easier to see the differences between 2 similiar text fields once they are highlighted in some way)

"The lazy dog jumped over a brown fox."
"The lazy dog jumped over the brown fox. "

Since we’re talking about a form in MS Access, I don’t have high hopes. But I know I’m not the first person to have this problem. Suggestions?

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Edit

I’ve gone with Remou’s solution. It’s not my ideal solution, but it is "good enough", especially since I don’t have any rich text options. In the query that builds the source table, I used space() to add trailing spaces to make both fields of equal length. Then I added this code to the Click event of both fields (with TextA and TextB reversed for the other field):

    Dim i As Integer
    For i = 1 To Len(Me.TextA.Text)
        If Right(Left(Me.TextA.Value, i), 1) <> _
        Right(Left(Me.TextB.Value, i), 1) Then
            Me.TextA.SelStart = i - 1
            Me.TextA.SelLength = Len(Me.TextA.Text)
            Exit For
        End If
    Next i

The result is that when you click on each field, the first "differing letter" to the end of the string is selected. I was able to experiment, code, and text this quickly, so I went with it. But I’ll be revisiting this idea sooner or later since this concept would be useful in several projects.

Answer 1

You could set selstart and sellength, this will select a part of the textbox. There are some dangers, in that the user may lean on a key and clear the selection.