How to reuse data in multiple records in Access form

Question

Big question: How can I make Access automatically fill in a cell in a form based on previously entered data?

I need to enter leave details for members of staff. I tend to enter these by date, and in one to two week chunks. Is there a way to have the next new record automatically fill in the date part of the record with the previously entered one?

Table structure
Staff: StaffID, Name
Absences: ID, StaffID, Dateaway, OtherDetails

I want it to automatically fill in DateAway with the entry of the row above it, or the previously entered row, as I will enter say 10 dates in a fortnight, but 50 entries over those dates. I enter them chronologically, and after the fact (So just defaulting to TODAY() won't work).

There's a shortcut Ctrl+' that does pretty much what I need, wondering if there's a way to do that with the generation of a new record.

Answer 1

You have to be careful with this. If your form is bound to a table/query, you're going to insert a junk record every time you're done with the form. However, if it's unbound you can do this using DMAX, in the After Insert event of the form.

Private Sub Form_AfterInsert() 
   txtDateaway.Text = DMax("Dateaway", "Absences", "StaffID = " & Me.txtStaffID) 
End Sub

This is, of course, assuming your Dateaway field on your form is called txtDateaway and your StaffID field is called txtStaffID.