Thanks to both of you - maybe I should try to explain what I need by coming at this from the ‘form’ point of view first. I’m duplicating a db and process already in place. It was originally programmed in Filemaker Pro (and works very well too) but we now have to switch to Access.
The form in question, ‘Printing Log’, is based on a table named ‘Printing’. It’s used to log in print job orders, track them throughout the process of filling them, and to log them out when completed. The form must be open and available at all times throughout the processing of the orders.
As orders are logged in, a ‘Project’ must be designated for each. (There is a field named ‘Project’ in the ‘Printing’ table that is related to the ‘Project ID’ field in the ‘Projects’ table.) The ‘Project’ combo box on the form is based on a query that looks up project names in a ‘Projects’ table. The only criteria in the query is to find projects that are marked as ‘Current’. The reason for this is that there are over 200 projects in the ‘Projects’ table – it's much cleaner to choose from the 50 or so that are current at any one time.
This all works fine until this situation arises:- for example – On 9/1, a print order, #10, is logged into ‘Printing Log’ for the ‘ABC Project’. (Because it is marked as ‘current’ in the ‘Projects’ table, ‘ABC Project’ shows up in the pull-down menu for the ‘project’ combo box on the ‘Printing Log’ form.) On 9/5, the #10 print order is complete and logged out of ‘Printing Log’. On 9/8, ‘ABC Project’ is marked as ‘Not Current’ in the ‘Projects’ table.
Now when I go to the ‘Printing Log’ form, the ‘Project’ combo box is blank for print order #10. However, when I go to the ‘Printing’ table, #10 still shows ‘ABC Project’ in the record. I need to always be able to see in the ‘Printing Log’ form what ‘project’ an order was printed for whether or not that project is current at that point in time.
I’ve played around a bit more with the form and ‘project’ shows in a text box based on the ‘Project’ field from the ‘Printing’ table. I don’t have that much room to play with on the ‘Printing Log’ form though. Short of a separate entry screen at the time of logging in jobs (which will meet with great resistance by the way) is there anything else that you can think of that would work?