[ARGGHHH - I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but this is the third time I've submitted a post and only part of it has showed up. Any hints as to what is causing that would be appreciated! Meanwhile, here is the post I just sent in its entirety.]
Sorry for the time lapse here - I've been spinning a lot of pie plates at once these past few weeks. Rafe and Michael, for the great replies. Terse is just fine, except for folks like me who need a response more a la Hemingway style. [g] I appreciate you coming back with more very helpful details!
In any case, I tried both methods, and Rafe, with yours, I got as close as getting it to produce the numerical ID (the primary key) of the phonebook field, but could not get it to display the text. Michael, with yours, I'm embarrassed to have to admit that after numerous "best guess approaches" as to where to put the code you described, the closest I could get was that it would change ALL the records to that new "default" value (including old records that should not have been changed), or I would get an error in the field. So I struck out both times.
Rafe, FYI, I do try to use VB and event procedures as much as possible. Up until recently, I've survived with a LOT of beginner's dumb luck, mostly copying and pasting code from elsewhere in the existing or other databases, and that has shielded me from the pain of realizing what I don't know. But that big gap is closing in on me and now my frustration level is at a peak and I know I need to do something about it - hence, my question in another post about VB and Access classes.
I really want to make this form work with the desired behavior, and I'm "this close" but still pulling my hair out. So Michael and Rafe, if you could spare another post in this subject, I'd be ever so grateful!
Rafe, one thing that confused me about your resopnse is whether or not you have yet another table *in addition to* the existing phonebook table I already have? If so, does it have a relationship to the existing table? The way my phonebook table is set up, the pbDesc field is the ONLY field in the table; it is a text field and primary key, and it has a one-to-many relationship with the tblFullAddress table (via the fapbDesc field). (The field control name is fapbDesc.) Can I keep it like that or do I need to create a numerical primary key field to accomplish it via your method? Also, I discovered an error after I posted my original post where I said the control name was faPhonebook - it should have stated it was fapbDesc.
Michael, with your method, could you tell me exactly where you would put the code (I assume as an event procedure) and what the code should say, based on the field names I've given?
Rafe, please note a question I've addressed to you in another post (in an effort to avoid thread drift) regarding unlinked forms.
Thanks so much for all your help!
Carenne [sig][/sig]