django-autocomplete-light simple usage

Select widget is default for ModelChoiceField

This form field does not specify a widget, so the select widget should be used by default with:

mymodel = forms.ModelChoiceField(
                required=True,
                queryset=ships.models.Authority.objects.all(),
          ) 

This is why you see a select field instead of an autocomplete.

Did you read django docs about using widgets ?

Use autocomplete_light.ChoiceWidget instead

All you have to do is specify the widget:

mymodel = forms.ModelChoiceField(
            required=True,
            queryset=ships.models.Authority.objects.all(),
            widget=autocomplete_light.ChoiceWidget('AutocompleteName')
          ) 

If you don't know what is the name of the autocomplete, login as staff and open http://yoursite/autocomplete/.

Ensure that you have jquery properly loaded and that autocomplete-light's staticfiles are loaded too !

Alternatives

FTR: another way is possible, using autocomplete_light.modelform_factory using shortcuts like autocomplete_light.modelform_factory or autocomplete_light.get_widgets_dict. API docs are passable but it does not beat reading the source code.

All in all, I think the easiest for you is using the get_widgets_dict shortcut if you are using a ModelForm.

Hidden docs

You might not have found the cookbook because it is a work in progress in the docs_rewrite branch, but the second part of "High level basics" provides several examples of using the widget.

I know that the docs have a problem, hence the docs_rewrite branch. Right now I'm focusing on improving mobile support.