Do the users know the name of the item they are searching for? My guess is they do. How else would they be able to find it in the list.

What you should do is provide a query mechanisim. Allow the user to type the first few characters of the name, and then return a list that will match the criteria. Even if the list has 1000 items, it will be much faster.

If you ask users if they need to see all of the data... they will ALWAYS SAY YES.. However, I bet they complain about the speed. It is usually a small training issue to get folks over this. Ask them the question.. Do you want to wait a minute or so, or get a list of relevant items in a few seconds...

Best of luck...


>>While I try to avoid navigational lists in a C/S environment... there are two basic scenarios:
>>
>>For small lists, I still use combos. They get their data via a stored procedure. In some cases, I have had 4 or 5 of these items on a single form. The performance is lightening fast....
>>
>Hi Jhon. I'm developing a CS system (inventory and purchases with VFE) with SQL 7 and VFP: there is a 15000 items list and the customer wants a complete combo to choose the items in the purchase order. The list uses a whole minute to show ( is a WAN connection) and they really DO want to see the entire list because the operators are mostly untrained employees. How can I optimize the time? BTW the articlles master is updated very often...
>
>TIA