How do I create a drop down menu with my "author" and "genre" entries in my form?

[nunovski]

I’m trying to create a personal book database. I created by my table with ID, title, author, genre, publisher, shelf number and cover image. I also created the related form without any issues. However, I don’t want to have insert a given author or genre every time it’s repeated. What do you suggest? I was thinking about a drop down menu or an autofill of some sort every time I inserted a name or genre’s first words. Do I need to create more tables?

[RobertG]

I would create separate tables for author and genre and link this tables by foreign key to you main table.
If you do so you could choose author and genre by a listbox. It will show the author/genre and insert the key value. But: You have to fill this separate tables first. You could only choose values, which are part of the tables.
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You could use only your one table solution. Switch the fields for author and genre to comboboxes. Create a selection like

SELECT DISTINCT "author" FROM "table" ordered by "author"

This will show all different authors you have inserted. You could also add new authors in the combobox. Will be shown also in the box after refreshing the box.

[skyandrews]

This sample by cpb is the best representation of what you may want. Modify it to fit your needs!

Base: How do I Add Fields as Columns in a Subform with a List Box?

@jdanniel, I believe this does exactly as required. the table “tJoin” has two columns “CompanyFK” and “VendorFK” which together form a composite primary key (this ensures no duplicates). . the query “qJoinInput” is data source for the subform which in turn is bound to the table “tJoin”, its content is very basic but it does the job without any need for macros etc. . I added a new customer called ‘Dummy’ to the table “tCustomer” for testing purposes. Form_Two_Unbound_Fields.odb (14.2 KB)