Finding Item In Long Drop Down List

[PDL]

We have many applications that require the user to select someones name from a phonebook.... There are 3000 in the phonebook. By hitting the first letter, the dropdown goes to the first entry with that letter.... gets us close!

Anyway where we could enter the first 2-3 letters of the name and go to that location in the dropdown list?

<SELECT Name=&quot;LastNAme&quot;>
<CFOUTPUT Query=&quot;Lookup&quot;>
<OPTION VAlue=&quot;#ID#&quot;>#Lastname#, #FirstNAme#</OPTION>
</SELECT>

 

[r937]

i don't think you can type the second letter without some really really complex javascript to intercept the keypress

here's an alternate strategy -- instead of one humungous dropdown, have two, one to pick the first letter, and a second which will display all the entries starting with the letter picked

example here:

http://www.efuse.com/Build/coldfusionwddx.html

rudy

 

[r937]

or, you can keep one dropdown list, and add a search function

example:

http://tech.irt.org/articles/js030/search.htm

(follow the Return link to see the article)

rudy

 

[csteinhilber]

The standard Windows behavior is for the user to type the first letter again and the dropdown should move down to the next entry starting with that letter, and so on.

Might get you closer.

I'm with Rudy, though... if you have 3000 names, good usability theory suggests that a dropdown is not the proper UI element to use.

Maybe something like those old mechanical phone books, where you slid the lever to the letter you desired, pressed the button, and the book opened to that letter, where you could then browse through all the names that began with that letter.
Just list your letters across the top or down the side of your page as links, then change the query that populates your dropdown based on the letter they picked.

Hope it helps,
-Carl

 

[csteinhilber]

Duh.

I just noticed that that's exactly what they did in the first example Rudy pointed to.

Geez... time for me to go to bed, apparently.
Hope it helps,
-Carl