Access has a field property called Required: Yes/No. I have seen some confusion about its meaning. It means "required at the time the record is initially created". It does not mean "must be filled in sooner or later" or "required by management on all reports", etc. As an example from our sample tables the start date of a labor ticket might well be required. The ending date is filled in later when the work is completed. Yes, an ending date is "required" but not when the labor record is created.
Q: How do you get autonumber fields to start at a specific number?
A: You append a record with an equivalent field containing the autonumber you want to start at less one. Say you want invoices to autonumber starting with 1000.
First create a little temporary table with one long integer number field. Add a record with the value 999 for the field. Then create and run an append query and append that record to the invoices table. Voila. The next time you add an invoice it will have the number 1000.
Note: for this to work you will have to temporarily change any required properties to no in the destination table since you are only appending from a one field table. There may be other ways, too. Post your solutions.
-- Edited by danhdurso on Friday 31st of August 2012 05:42:13 PM
Sometimes users have prroblems when they move a spreadsheet or text file that has been linked to a table in an Access database. When you do this you have to run the Linked Table Manager in Access and re-establish the path. Go to Tools | Database Utilities | Linked Table Manager. Check the boxes for the files that need to be re-linked. Check prompt for new location. Click OK and you will get the usual file dialog. Browse to your new locations. And that's it.
Just remember to do this whenever you move your spreadsheets or whatever.
