Common Entries Auto filled in

S

Sera

We keep track of Security Searches in an Access database. Some regula
contractors are searched quite often, while other visitors may onl
come to our site once. Is there a way to have the search for
automatically fill in information if the visitor is a repeat?

Fields include the like:
Name
Make
Model
Year
Color
Tag
state
VIN

Thanks in advanc
 
J

Jeff Boyce

Sera

One possible interpretation of your description is that you are duplicating
the data each time a contractor is a "repeat". I can't tell if the "fields"
you refer to are fields in a table, or controls on a form.

If the former, you (and your database) would benefit from doing a bit more
normalization. If you only had a spreadsheet, that data structure would be
fairly common... but in a relational database, it is unnecessarily
duplicative.

If the latter, why not just "look up" the previously recorded contract for
his/her fields?

By the way, Access treats the word "Name" as a reserved word ... if you
entitle a field "Name", Access (and you) will get confused.

By the way, 2, "Name" implies FirstName, MiddleName, LastName, Suffix -- how
are you going to sort your contractors by lastname? A more common practice
(and in keeping with the first stage of normalization) would be to keep only
one fact in a field, not (up to) four.

--
Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP


Microsoft IT Academy Program Mentor
http://microsoftitacademy.com/

Microsoft Registered Partner
https://partner.microsoft.com/
 
S

Sera

Each entry is a field. I can see that I should separate the name int
differnt fields, which will be simple to add at this point. The dat
was originally stored in an excel spreadsheet. Now that the sprea
sheet is over 1000 lines long, and growing, I talked my boss int
letting me design an access database for the information. Som
contractors get searched more than once a week. By law and regulation
we have to keep track of every search.

I created a table with all of the fields that we need to track. I the
created a form, where we could enter the information from each search
I've only entered about 20 of the searches, just to have something t
work with while I work out the bugs as I learn more about using access


How would you suggest I work it so that I can have John Doe's vehicl
information auto fill in whenever we search him?

I was looking at "Customer" & "Addess book" databases last night
trying to see if I could customize that to what we need, but I fee
like my ignorance is making this much harder than it needs to be.
 
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