Page 3 - Calculated and send to totals. Question

Use AA"-"AAA;0;_ as the mask. The 0 indicates to retain punctuation, in this case the '-'. The '_' is a placeholder to give a visual indicator of how many characters to enter. If you want to limit the characters to numbers use 00"-"000;0;_

Check this link for info on input mask:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HP051875501033.aspx

Not really understanding what you are looking for in the report. If you don't want data grouped by employee then just delete that group header. Data will then be grouped by Current and Pending with categories under each and projects listed in each category. What hierarchy of grouping do you want?

Where I want to set the input mask AA"-"AAA;0;_ the control source is:
=[ProjectID] & " / " & [ProjectTitle]
I think that this is why the input mask is not working, I only see
Project ID/Title: 04563 / Las cascada de Aguadilla.

The other that happen is with the Effort totals in the Report. I cant do this by subtotal to each category.
what I doing to create the subtotals by category is to use the control source property to see if I can change the formula =Sum([Effort]) to this
=Sum([CategoryAcademic]) but those not work and give a mismatch error.

Is effective changing Effort totals to subtotals by category something like this
Start End Academi Calendar Summer
Employee: Pagan, Joseph
Status: Pending
Project ID/Title: 04373 / Cielo azul 03-Jul-09 27-Aug-10 60%
Project ID/Title: 03293 / Los alcances 16-Jul-09 31-Jul-09 40%
Project ID/Title: 01983 / Las americas 25-Nov-09 19-Feb-10 60%
Project ID/Title: 04656 / Salsa Buena 17-Oct-09 26-Jun-10 50%
SubTotals 110% 60 40

It is meaningless to use an input mask in a report textbox which is where you seem to be doing because that is where the expression you show is. Use the input mask in the textbox for the FileNumber on the Projects data entry form. You will have to edit values already saved to the table.

I will take another look at the reporting as you describe and see if I can figure it out this weekend. Still looks like simply grouping/sorting just in different arrangement.

New version of project at:
http://www.box.net/shared/vymzj4116f

I modified Projects data entry form to show the input mask.

Created a new report which involved changing the grouping and adding some textboxes with expressions to sum category using an Iif statement. You had the right idea about the Sum calc, just not the right syntax.

Discovered I had accidentally changed fields from text to memo, not good, sorry about that.

June7 how you add "-" to the file number in the report .I cant do that
Here is my dummy of the project that you create.When you have time see why i can add the "-" to the report. Or how i add this to the file number in the report.
http://www.4shared.com/file/121396882/a1e74d05/Database_Time_and_Effort_dummy1.html

Thanks 4all

Did you edit the file number values saved before implementing the input mask? You will have to manually edit each record to add the '-' to those file numbers saved before started using the input mask.

Thanks June 7 you are a great.

Closing........resolved......