Autofilling a form

[bumfromjersey]

Hi all,
I am coming back to Access after a few years away from it so please be kind. What I am trying to figure out is there a way for a form to be autofilled. What I am building is a database that can be updated by professors. They want to comment on a student from time to time. So if they comment on it today and then decide to comment on the student again, they would know not to comment in the same memo box as before (w/o having to get an error after they fill it out) and comment in the memo box below it.

Any ideas would be welcomed!

[nico5038]

Probably best to have a separate Memo table to keep track of the memo's over time.
Just create a tblStudentMemo with the studentID and a DateMemo field.
The dateMemo field can be set to be filled with default =Now() so the value will be filled automatically and all that's finally needed is a subform (change the form format from datasheet to continuous when you want) that's showing the tblStudentMemo fields in decending order. Thus the most recent entry will be visible first.

Nic;o)

[bumfromjersey]

Thank you for the response Nico! I am little confused though.

I don't see what you are suggesting would indicate to the user that the box is previously filled. Right now, I have things setup like you suggested (my memo table has the values, studentid, advisor1, date1, comment1, advisor2, date2, comment2, etc, etc for one given record). There is no problem when I enter in the first comment but when I enter in the second (playing the part of the uninformed professor) i purposely put the new comment into the first memobox - comment1 - and as expected i get an error.

Is there a way where that will automatically be blacked/grayed out because data is already present in there? even if i did your suggestion of making the date to say =Now, won't the date for date1 (the first date box for comment1) just change each time as the entire form will always be blank when its first opened up? or would that date always be fixed (so on july 5th it will say july 5th and stay that way on july 8th)?

If I am confusing you, I am sorry but I do appreciate your help.

[nico5038]

You'll need to start thinking in tables and table rows. :-)

Never use fields for storing multiple values of the same data (here your Memo's).

Use two tables:
1) tblStudent
2) tblStudentMemo with fields like:
studentid,
advisor,
MemoDate,
MemoText

In tblStudentMemo you use the unique ID of the student to "link" the memo's to the student.
When you create a Student form, you can than add a Memo subform and Access will synchronize the Memo's to be only those of the specific student.

Clearer?

Nic;o)