Some sort of search question...

[ruski949]

Hello everyone,

First, I would like to say thank you for all who participate in this forum and spend their free time helping others such as myself who are just beginning to work with Access.

Second, sorry for the vague thread title; I really don't know how to phrase my particular question without explaining my situation first. I will try and explain in as simple of a way as possible first.

My database is used to enter, store, and retrieve customer and job information.

I have two main tables (among others); one for Customer information and one for Job Information. Each table has its own form.

The Job table is actually placed as a subform inside of the Customer form.

Currently, The form is setup so that each customer record will pull up its related jobs in the subform. I can search any of the fields in the customer form and it will search my database and pull up that customer along with all the jobs we have done for them.

The problem I have run into is that I cannot use the job subform to search my ENTIRE database because it will only show a limited amount of records at any given moment.

This is mainly an issue because the job subform has a field for Job ID, which is a popular way for us to search our records to bring up a specific job.

Basically I see it as a parent/child relationship, and I have created my database so that I can search all parent records and automatically bring with them all the child records, but I may have shot myself in the foot because now I may not be able to search all the child records directly.

Any help/ideas/suggestions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,



Elie

[NTC]

based on your post - it seems that the db you have so far was set up for a Customer centric look up....in db parlance it is Customer View

and now you are realizing you need a Job View.

not at all uncommon - but you are correct in your perception that it isn't there right now. But everything is in tables - and we can safely assume the relationships are all done correctly between them. so you start from scratch at the query level and say ok now I want to view data from Job View - - and build a query.....then ultimately add a form to it and make a nicer User Interface.

if how to build queries is a mystery - then for sure you should get a text book easily found for Access at Amazon or any big book store and start getting up to speed in this as one really can't do database design without it.....

hope this helps.

[ruski949]

Thanks for your response NTC!

Now one issue I have is that I ultimately want all this information to be on one form/window to make this process/database as user-friendly as possible. I will have users that have very basic computer knowledge and would prefer for them to stick with one window.

Do you think there is a way for me to use my current form and modify it in a way that I can use a field in the subform to search the entire database?

If not, would it be possible to create a new button somewhere on the subform where a user could search the entire database and populate the current form with the results?

Thanks,

Elie