No, you can't turn a Number field into an AutoNumber field.
Select the table in the Database window.
Copy (Ctrl+C), and Paste (Ctrl+V).
Answer the dialog that you want the structure only, and supply a new name.
Open in design view. Delete the Number column. Save.
Add an AutoNumber column. Save.
Create a query into the old table.
Change it to an Append query (Append on Query menu), and tell it you want to
append to the new table.
Run the query. This imports all the old records into the new.
You now have a new table, with an AutoNumber column, and the data with the
values you wanted. You can delete your old table.
That's correct. It's not something you turn on; it's something you
design in from the start.
Create a new table by copying and pasting this one, design mode only;
change the field type of the field from Long Integer to Autonumber;
and then run an Append query to fill it with the data from your
current table.
You have already been told the answer to your question, but I have an
answer to the question you did not ask and maybe should have.
I suggest you may not want to use Autonumber for that use. Autonumbers are
designed to provide unique numbers. It in not designed to provide numbers
in order and for a number of reasons may not do so. As a result using them
in any application where the user sees the numbers is likely to end up with
confusion.
There are other ways of providing the numbers you want depending on the
particual application.
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