Welcome to Bytes Jake:
When you say extremely novice, as in never opened the box before novice, if this is the case you should read the information provided here (sorry, I'm going to cheat a tad and just link you to these posts in another thread :) ):
Thread 950574 Post #7 and in
Thread 950574Post #5.
What have you tried so far to get your controls to work?
Please post the code (click on the [CODE/] format button first and then paste your code between the tags).
We'll also need the version of Office/Access you're working in and few more details about your database, please read the site FAQ and this forum's posting guidlines for the details.