Auto Fill - part 2 of my question

[Guest]

OK, First I wanted to thank everyone for their answers to my previous
questions. I am very (and I stress very) new to Access. This is my
situation.
I am creating a database to track funds spent on a government grant. On
this grant there are 8 different programs that applicants can utilize. An
applicant can use all 8 programs each year. I am setting up the “index /
main†table to consist of data that all 8 programs will have (i.e., first and
last name, street address, and contact information). The additional tables
contain the information that is unique to the different programs. Since an
applicant can use all 8 programs, how can I get Access to “auto fill†the
contact data if I enter the name “John Doe†and his information has been
previously entered in another program?
I’ve read from previous post that I should make the fields combo boxes. My
question is, should I make all the fields I want to have to information to
“auto fill†combo boxes? And if I make them combo boxes what selection
should I choose when using the combo box wizard
1. I want the combo box to look up the values in a table or query.
2. I will type the values that I want
3. Find a record on my form based on the value I selected in my combo box.
Also, if the field is a combo box, and the applications information has not
already been entered into the database, can I still enter the information on
the form via the combo box? I assumed that a combo box was to selecte data
that was already within the database, not to enter data on the actual form.
Is my assumption wrong? I will stress again, I am VERY new to access, any
direction/you can give me will be appreciated.

 

[Doug M]

So in each of your tables with Program details you would store the ID of
the "parent" Applicant record and for this you use the combo box with "Look
up values from a table or query" that query being your Applicant table. You
need to specify that you want to store the value in the ApplicantID field in
the ProgramDetails table. That way you choose the Applicant name from the
combo list and that Applicant record gets linked to this ProgramDetails
record.

If you want to show other Applicant information on the form after you
choose the Applicant, then you need to base the form on a query which
contains fields from both the Applicant table and the ProgramDetails table.

Doug M