normally the updates must be seen on a main screen that isn't edited, kind of like a status screen where one would watch inventory or shipments coming in and out.
I've made many apps like this that use a timer system. Each form has a timer event at the bottom of the events listed in the properties of the form. You can set the timer to a value like 10000 and the event to docmd.requery. That will update the screen. If you don't want to annoy your users with unexpected updates, set the increment to a lower number like 5000, and have it update a global variable "updateCount" to UpdateCount + 1. When "UpdateCount" is, say, 5, then Requery. Then, Add another routine for onmousemove which resets UpdateCount to 0.
-Dan Morris