ACC2000: Demoting Groups Does Not Reset ControlSource Property

After you merge two groups on a data access page, one or more of the controls displays #Name?.

There are two possible resolutions.

One resolution is to avoid dragging the controls from one group to another. Just demote the group, and then the controls will be merged, including valid ControlSource properties.

The other resolution is to change the ControlSource property of the control so that it is bound to the field that you want to display on the page. For example, if you follow the steps in the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior" section later in this article, you can resolve the problem by changing the ControlSource property of the ProductID control to the field name, ProductID.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

You can merge two groups on a data access page by right-clicking the group, and then clicking Demote on the shortcut menu. If you first drag the controls from one section and drop them onto another section before demoting, you cause the ControlSource property of those controls to become invalid.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Open either the sample database Northwind.mdb or the sample Access project NorthwindCS.adp.
2. Click Pages, click New, click Design View, and click OK.
3. If the field list is not displayed, click Field List on the View menu.
4. In the field list, click the Database tab, expand Tables, expand Categories, and then drag CategoryID onto the Section: Unbound section of the page.
5. Expand Products, and then drag ProductID to the top edge of the bar that is labeled NavigationSection: Categories. Drop ProductID when you see the blue line with inward arrowheads on each end of the line.
   
   NOTE: The ControlSource property for this ProductID control is ProductID. If you switch the page to Page view, you will see the products per category.
6. Drag the ProductID control from the Header: Products section up into the Header: Categories section.NOTE: The ControlSource property for the ProductID control is now GroupOfProductID: ProductID. At this point, if you switch the page to Page view, you will still see a ProductID.
   
   
7. Right-click anywhere in the Header: Categories section, and then click Demote on the shortcut menu.NOTE: The ControlSource property for the ProductID control is still GroupOfProductID. If you switch the page to Page view, you will see #Name? instead of a ProductID.