Increasing the character limit for a feild

[Accu-Grind]

Not sure I'm in the right forum, but I have a form and the amount of info I need to input is larger than the amount it allows. I will not let me continue typing after a certain point. Is there a way to increase the limit so I can add all of my data? It's basically a comment that I need to add.

[orange]

How long is the field in which you are storing the data?
How long is the data you need to store?

[Accu-Grind]

I don't know where to access the field length in a number form, but what I'm trying to write is the following:

Procedure P 7.4-1, Step 6.13 required that purchase orders for measuring equipment include the following statement: "A copy of calibration certificate for each piece of measuring equipment calibrated including traceability to NIST." Following purchase orders did not include the statement: Precision Inspection (P.O. 6517), Robert E. Morris (P.O. 7457), and Zero Check (P.O. 0482).

[orange]

Did you create this database? Can you tell us more about the database and how it is used?

A text field in an Access field can be up to 255 characters in length.
You could use a memo/long text field instead.
see this for more info

[Accu-Grind]

I have a form and a sub form that is taken from a different table. I am trying to write that in a field of the table, but it is not big enough.

[orange]

What do you use this database for?
You may be able to store the text in a memo field. But there may be other issues with memo fields depending on what your needs are.
If you did not design this database, you may want to talk with the designers.
In any event you may want to ensure you have a backup of the database before making any changes. You don't want to lose what you already have.

[Accu-Grind]

This is a correction action database. There are many corrective actions and each have comments about their corrective action. That one in particular just happens to be too long for the table.

[Perceptus]

I would count the number of characters you can type in the field. Is it 50? 50 is kinda low, 255 is the max. Or you can get the field in the table to be a memo. Memo is used for larger amounts of text. Stores up to 65,536 characters. Note: You cannot sort a memo field. However, they are searchable

[Accu-Grind]

I'm going to say it is the 255 one

[Perceptus]

You would need to change the system field type for this field from text to memo. This kind of change usually prompts you for dataloss, as the system needs to convert the text fields data into a memo. To change this field. you can try executing an ALTER TABLE command. or you can try to find a table in the Navigation Pane on the left hand side(F11 usually shows it).

Before you do anything, backup. I break databases atleast once a week. backups save my ass all the time.

[orange]

You may also consider a change in table structure.

Suppose you have a tblCorrectiveAction and a related table tblCorrectiveActionComments.

For each CorrectiveAction, you could have any number of Comments related to that specific corrective action.
This would be a 1 to may relationship where each comment would refer to a specific corrective action.

The CorrectiveAction could have code, id, name, description (255 chars max)
and each comment could be up to 255 chars. with as many comments as necessary per Corrective action.

[Accu-Grind]

Changing it to a memo has done what I needed. Thank you.