control buttons and linking forms in access

[Shannon]

Until a week ago I had never even opened MS Access, so most of the
questions I am going to ask will need to be explained in detail.
During the past week I have been teaching myself the basics of Access
with the help of an online tutorial I have found. The only problem is,
is that it does not get as detailed or as complicated as I would like.

I am going to need a series of at least 5 screens to complete this
task, each screen related to the next in relation to the pump or motor
the user is looking at from the previous screen. Using the forms in
Access I am able to create all the screens/forms that I need, but I do
not know how to link the screens to one another or get the control
buttons to execute quite like I want them. I think that if I ask a few
questions about items I have on different screens I will be able to
expand that knowledge to compete every thing that I need.

1) I need a form that starts the sequence that will have a text box
that you can enter a system number. After entering a system number I
need to be able to hit a control button that will pull up a second
form that will list all the pumps and motors for that system.

2) Once the list is displayed I will need to be able to select from
any of the pumps and motors and a third screen with be displayed that
contains all the information on the pump/motor

3) Finally, once a user reaches the area where the screen lists all
the information for a specific pump/motor I need to have an edit
control button that will allow the user to change the information on
the screen. Otherwise the screen should be locked, preventing the user
from editing the screen, which should help with accidental data loss
do to user error.

I would really appreciate it if some one could explain how to link the
forms. Right now I have the following databases:
-Motors (which contains all information on the motors in the plant)
-Pumps (which contains all the information on the pumps in the plant)
-History ( which is linked to motors and pumps to list for each
motor/pump what pump/motor it was connected to in the past
- Driven (contains a list of all the motors in the plant. It is linked
to the pump that the motor is currently driving)

If you do not have the time to explain these things, I would
appreciate it if you could point me to another tutorial that has a
large section on creating different control buttons or linking the
forms as described above.

Thank you so much for your time and patience with me,
Shannon

 

[Jessica]

Shannon,
I am not qite seeing the relationships, but perhaps I can at leat give you a push in the right direction.
on the First Form your users are typing in a system number, I would suggest creating a button on that form and by using the wizard you can select form operations, and open form. It should then list all of the available forms. Select the one you want and then select "Open the form and find specific data to display". It will then ask for the relation ship between the 2 forms, here is where you tell it that the textbox value will equal your system number field in the new form. That should get you from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3. Now on 3 is where it gets complicated. The wizard doesn't handle unlocking fields. Start with setting all of the fields to locked. Then create your button, but this time cancel out of the wizard. Then go to properties and select OnClick and click the ... after the field. Select expression builder. Select Forms and your current form fromt he right column, then select the field you want to lock fromt he middle column, then select locked from the last column. it should put up [fieldname].Locked you need to type =true at the end of the statement. This will unlock the field.

This should get you started.

Jessica