Hi,

In my table (and the form field linked to it) I have a field for the IBAN 
account number, which must be 2 Upper case characters A to Z, followed by 18 
manadatory digits, and up to 28 total.

So in my input mask I have this:
>LL00\-0000\-0000\-0000\-0000\-9999\-9999;;

and it works fine.

But when the user enters less than 20 characters total (including the two 
letters at the start and at least 18 digits) Access gives a very unfriendly 

''The value you entered isn't appropriate for the input mask 
'>LL00\-0000\-0000\-0000\-0000\-9999\-9999;;' specified for this field" 

error message!

So I want to try and make this into a Validation Rule, then I can put a 
Validation text message to help the user.

Has anyone managed to use optional numeric only wildcards in pattern strings 
for Access form fields?

Can anyone help?

thanks

Philip