# Access Q - Linking tables

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/access-q-linking-tables/455621>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 7, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/access-q-linking-tables/455621 "2008-07-07T22:43:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/access-q-linking-tables/455621/1 "2008-07-07T22:43:32Z")

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Hello,  
I have an access 2007 question that I thought would be easy, but I’m either making it much harder than neccessary, or it’s too complicated for me (I’m a bit of a novice).

I have a switchboard. There are 4 forms that you can open from the switchboard.

Customer  
Orders  
Inventory  
Reports

The two forms Customer and Orders have several fields that I want to be linked (but are different tables), including RecordID, Customer, Phone.

When I open the Orders form from the switchboard, I want to automatically have Record ID, Customer, and Phone flood in from the Customer table.

Is there an easy way to do this? Have I explained it enough?  
Am I way out of my depth? (oh wait, I can answer this one… yes!)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/access-q-linking-tables/455621/2 "2008-07-07T23:25:46Z")

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[QUOTE=whatami]  
Hello,  
I have an access 2007 question that I thought would be easy, but I’m either making it much harder than neccessary, or it’s too complicated for me (I’m a bit of a novice).

\<snipped\>  
Is there an easy way to do this? Have I explained it enough?  
Am I way out of my depth? (oh wait, I can answer this one… yes!)  
[/QUOTE]

Quick and dirty way is to create a query getting all the fields that you want populated (use the query grid), then use the query as the data source for your form.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/access-q-linking-tables/455621/3 "2008-07-07T23:55:05Z")

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[QUOTE=BF]  
Quick and dirty way is to create a query getting all the fields that you want populated (use the query grid), then use the query as the data source for your form.  
[/QUOTE]

Thanks… I acutally just got it figured out using some code I cannabalized from an older simliar db. I was _this_ close the first time, but was trying to pull from a field that didn’t exist (slightly different name)…