Carrying forward Header field info. to new records

[Guest]

Hello, I have a clinical trial application that is made up of a series of
forms that, unfortunately, will NOT be filled out in a predictable sequence.
For some forms, the data entry person will use that form to enter several
patient records before moving on to the next form. Is there a way to have
some sort of 'control form' that would contain only the key Header info. that
will remain constant across forms for each patient? (The Header fields would
be: 'id', 'initials', 'sitenum'). My thought is to look up to that 'control'
Form to auto-populate these Header fields as the data entry person navigates
from form to form. Then, once they got to a new patient, they would simply
change the 'control' form to match the new patient info. My application
opens up w/ a custom Form that contains Command Buttons to open whatever form
the data entry person needs to go to, and will remain open as long as the
database is open-- perhaps something can be put on this form (an additional
Command Button to open the 'control' Form I'm describing)?

I'm a bit of a novice at actual coding, and I want to ensure that any
auto-population is accurate and consistent.

Thanks.

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Pat,

Tell us a bit more about the data structure. In particular, how are the
various tables underlying these forms linked to the Patients table?

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

If I understand the question correctly, the 'id' field will be the 'key'
field linking the tables. Basically, I'm looking for a way to have these
header fields auto-populated instead of relying on the data entry person to
enter them in correctly more than once (thus increasing margin of error).

Thanks.

 

[John Nurick]

Pat,

You're still being very cagy about the data structure, but you make it
sound as if 'id' 'initials' and 'sitenum' are all fields in the Patients
table, whatever that's called.

If so, and the linking field is 'id', the 'initials' and 'sitenum'
fields should not be included in the other tables. Their values can be
retrieved from the Patients table whenever needed, either by including
them in a query on which the other table is based or by using a
DLookup() expression as the ControlSource of a textbox.

Have you considered using a form bound to the Patients table, containing
a Tab control with several tabs - and on each tab a subform bound to one
of the other tables? You'd put the "header" fields - the ones used to
select and identify the patient whose data is to be edited and that need
to be visible at all times - in the form's Header.

This is a very common way of handling this sort of situation in Access;
because of the extremely powerful automatic handling of the form:subform
relationship, the basic setup needs no coding at all, and it's far, far
simpler than keeping multiple separate forms reliably synchronised.