please help... can't add new record in form... 2nd record changes

[Guest]

I am new to Access... I created a form... I am needing a record of recipes
for a nursing home...

I have the form designed... I enter the info in Form view... when I click to
make a new record, all the info from the first record is included in the
second... if i change the second... it changes the first... i am so
frustrated and now the button to make a new record isn't highlighted so i
can't even do that. i feel like an idiot. plz help I need to type all this
for Monday and it's Friday night now

 

[MacDermott]

Unlike Excel, Access separates the data from the form used to display it.
It sounds as if you have created a form, but no table to store the data in.

Here's a quick way to get started:
1. Create your tables. I'd suggest two tables, one for information that
occurs once for each recipe, e.g. RecipeName, type, source, perhaps
directions. The second would be for ingredients, and should have fields
like RecipeName (to match the first table), IngredientName,
IngredientQuantity, IngredientMeasure.
2. Create a one-to-many relationship between the RecipeName in the first
table and RecipeName in the second table. (The Help file will tell you how
to do this.)
3. From the DatabaseWindow, select your main table (click once on it), then
on the toolbar, click New Object:AutoForm. (It's about the second from the
right.)
This will create a form for you, which will be set up to store data in your
tables.
If needed, you can open that form in design view and move the controls
around to something that will work better for you.

This is just a quick intro to some of what Access can do for you; please
post back with specific questions if you have them.

HTH

 

[Guest]

TY for your repsonse. I had a table created already, but I just started over
and made a new one. With your help, that problem is resovled. As you
suggested, I moved around the design in Design view. I am ready to begin
entering data into the Form view. But I do have three specific questions.

1. I added a text box with label. When in Form view, "#Name?" appears in
that text box. How do I remove that using Design view in the form and be able
to enter text using Form view?

2. I have "Recipe ID" set as my primary key. It is set for numbers/letters I
create. But the amount of entries is limited... I can only enter 4
numbers/letters, but I need 5. Where do I change this?

3. When entering data in the "Instructions" section, I would like to enter
it as a numbered list to keep it looking neat (typing in numbers myself
doesn't indent continued lines). Is this possible to do? If so... how?

Thanks so much for your help!!!

 

[Guest]

OK... nevermind about questions 1 and 2... I finally figured those out. I
still need help with question 3, though.

And another thing... it seems my forms are not in the order I typed them...
is there a way to reorder these later?

 

[John Vinson]

3. When entering data in the "Instructions" section, I would like to enter
it as a numbered list to keep it looking neat (typing in numbers myself
doesn't indent continued lines). Is this possible to do? If so... how?

If you really want to do this - and you might want to consider instead
a one-to-many relationship from Recipes to RecipeInstructions, linked
by RecipeID (it's best not to use blanks in fieldnames) - you can make
Instructions a Memo field. On the Form that you're using to enter the
data, set the "Enter Key Behavior" property of the textbox bound to
the Instructions field to "New line in field".

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[MacDermott]

Glad you're past that first step!
It's especially good to see clear, specific questions - those are the kind
which are most likely to get a quick response here.

1. If #Name? appears in a textbox in Form view, this usually indicates that
whatever you entered as the ControlSource isn't being properly interpreted
by Access. One common reason for this is if you have given the textbox the
name of a field in your table, but the ControlSource is anything but that
field. In that case, just change the name of the textbox. If that's not
it, please post back with the textbox's name and ControlSource.

2. "Can only enter..." - could mean a couple of things. If the box is just
too short, just drag it out longer. If you're finding that nothing happens
when you try to type more than 4 characters, there may be a limitation in
the table itself. Open the table in Design View, and highlight that field.
In the lower section of the window, the topmost entry should be FieldSize.
Hint: if you need to change this for the Primary Key, you'll need to remove
the relationship first. Then make the change in both tables and
re-establish the relationship.

3. My first thought would be to make a third table for Instructions. It
could have 3 fields: RecipeID, OrderID, and Instruction. OrderID would be
1, 2, 3, etc, to establish the order in which they're displayed. Create
another relationship, and a second subform on your form. Hint: It's
generally best to think in terms of designing your form for data entry, and
a separate report to present the data nicely formatted for output.

HTH