jmagee,
If you are going to make the ADO Data control invisible, what is the need to include it in the form ? You can do all database accesses programmatically.
First make a reference to Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Library from the <Project> <References> menu. (My version is 2.1, yours may be different).
***********CODE STARTS HERE*****************
Dim cnn1 as ADODB.Connection
Dim rs1 as ADODB.Recordset
Dim strFind as String
Set cnn1 = New ADODB.Connection
cnn1.ConnectionString "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.3.51;Data Source=c:\example.mdb"
' If mdb file is Access 2000, you should use 4.0 instead of 3.51
cnn1.CursorLocation = adUseClient 'Client side cursor
cnn1.Open 'Open the connection
Set rs1 = New ADODB.Recordset
strFInd = "'" + dropdown.text + "'" 'Use the Text value of drop down list here. Be sure to add the single quotes
rs1.Open "Select * From ExampleTableName Where ExampleColumn = " + strFInd, cnn1, adOpenDynamic, adLockBatchOptimistic
'If there is only one matching record, you can assign its value to the text box like this
textbox.text= rs1.fields(1) 'Second column.
'Then unload the objects
Set cnn1 = Nothing
Set rs1 = Nothing
***********CODE ENDS HERE****************************
Hope this helps,
Sajith