Best Way To Tweak And Copy Forms

[batowl]

Hi All,



Two questions:

1. I have a set of forms designed for data entry on one topic (let's call it topic A) into a large database (which is split so all the tables are in the back end). Now I want to duplicate all of those forms (their layout, etc., etc.) for topic A for use within the same database, but linked back to a different set of tables (topic B). The tables (which are already created) that these new forms would link back to are virtually identifical as those that are in use for topic A. I do not want to repeat the same laborious form design process for this form (then 2 more after that for topics C and D). Any suggestions?

2. What is the best way to make changes to an existing form when the form is already "filled" with data (the data exists in the back end tables, just viewed in the forms of course)? In the past I was going into Design View to make changes to the form but Access often runs out of memory in those scenarios or worse, corrupted the form.

Thank you for any suggestions!

[June7]

Why are the topics in separate tables? Why not 1 table with another field for topic ID? Best approach is properly normalized data structure.

Regardless, use one set of forms to serve all topics. Could use code to dynamically change the form RecordSource property. I would not have multiple identical sets of forms - maintenance headache.

[batowl]

Its a long story, but I did it that way to accomodate some pre-existing, external tables that the database links up to. So it is something I just have to live with. I just dont want to go through the work of recreating all of these forms again.

[June7]

If you really want to create duplicate forms, then copy/paste, rename new form, change RecordSource property, change code that refers to form name.

Personally, I would use the single form set and dynamic RecordSource.