Getting a value for a report via dialog, MS Access

Question

OK, this should be brainlessly trivial, yet I can't manage to run.

MS Access. I have a report. Before that gets on the screen, a dialog box should appear, and the user should type a number.

I did this: I put a text box in the report (the value from the user should appear there). ControlSource has the same value as the name of the text box. So a dialog occurs, very nice. Now, to force the input to be a number, I set data type to number and even composed a entry mask. In the apposite test dialog, I can't type characters, only numbers - great!

But when I execute the report, I always can enter any crap in that text box. Why doesn't the entry mask apply to that entry box? I need the user to prevent chars to enter as there's an automated calculation going on and that messes up everything.

I could design a form, but it looks like a total overkill to design a form for this! What am I missing? Thanks

Answer 1

You have to design a form. The input box you are describing has no VBA module behind it in which you can write code; you therefore cannot customize it the way you want to.