How to use a form to fill in fields with the same value in the same table

[lbcarvalho]

Hi, every1!



I have a table called JOBS that I fill in according to the new jobs I get. I believe I should have planned my table better, but my Access knowledge is not that good yet.

I would like to crete a form (or whatever) that would help me avoid typing the same CLIENT_NAME for the different jobs. Sometimes I have 30 jobs for the same CLIENT_NAME.

Please note that I talking about one single table here. All I want to do is fill in this table, but without having to type the same CLIENT_NAME like 30 times.

Is that ever possible?

Thanks in advance!

lbcarvalho

[Micron]

You've been adding and editing records directly in your table(s)? Not the best idea.
Did you try the form wizard and see what it creates for a form if you base it on this table? I don't know if that would be of much help because I'm not sure if your comment means there is only one table in this entire db. If that is the case, you're making things more difficult for sure. Without a form, you really have no chance to do something like copy several fields from one record to another (or even just one if that one is the customer field).

[lbcarvalho]

Thank you very much, Micron!


- Actually my DB does have more than one table, but JOBS is the primary one.

- "you've been adding and editing records directly in your table(s)? Not the best idea." - I totally agree!

Let me try to be clearer:
Table: JOBS:
CLIENT JOB#
ABC JOB1
ABC JOB2
ABC JOB3

I do want a form (or whatever feature) that types ABS automatically for me so I don't have to.

"Did you try the form wizard and see what it creates for a form if you base it on this table?" - Yes, but it didn't help.

[Micron]

I'm rather clueless as to what the process is. I presume you create 30 odd records all at one time, otherwise this wouldn't be a repetitive thus tiresome task? Then perhaps you need a form/subform relationship or maybe a split form, which I haven't used except to help with forum questions.

A split form is 2 representations of the same data, so sometimes a main entity (customer) is in the header an a lot of related records (the many side) is in the other half. Most likely the recordsource for this type of form and for your purpose would need to have an updatable query as its recordsource.

A better solution may be a main form with customer detail and a subform with the jobs/orders listed below in a datasheet format and you add a datasheet record for every job. That way, you're not repeating any customer data, you just add job data in the subform and each record is linked to the main form customer field.

You can Google both split forms and subforms to see how they're built and used.

[ArviLaanemets]

Create an unbound main form fMain, and have a combo box there to select a client (combo's RowSource is query from clients table which returns client id and client name, combo's BoundColumn property bounds combo to client id).

Create a continuous form based on jobs table, and insert it into main form as subform. In subforms's (NB! Subform's, NOT job's form's!) properties set LinkMasterFields property to combo name in main form, and LinkChildProperty to client id field name in client table.

Any jobb added into subform will be linked to client selected in combo in main form (it's best to hide the control linked to client id in subform). And in subform are displayed only jobs assigned by this client.