Complex forms as subforms

[Cavern]

I have a complex form (in that it contains a lot of VB code and events) to display the information of various articles in my database. I would like to add some browsing options to the form (like a list of all articles on the left, and some different back/forward options), but I also need to preserve the form in its current state.
Rather than make a new copy of the form (and have to maintain TWO near-identical copies of the same form), I attempted to make a new form, with just the browsing list, and insert the old article information form as a subform on the left. However, it seems that any of the code from the original form which refers to Forms!Article Information!Article_ID ("Article Information" is the name of the original form) are not able to load the correct information, as I am prompted to supply it myself. Needless to say, I don't want the user to be prompted for the article number each time they open the form .

I'm wondering how I would go about opening the old form as a subform in such a way that I am not prompted each time. Or alternativley, if there's a better way to do what I'm trying to do, how should I do it?

 

[Superock]

Does it also aplly to...

When you make a form a subform, you need to change how you reference it.

Forms!mainformname!subformname.Form!controlname

So if I understand you correctly Pat, if I had a main form with a subform on it and the subform was populated with variables from the mainform and I then want to double click a record (or Multipule records) on the subform to pass the record(or Recordset) information to a report all I have to do is ref the recordset using Forms!mainformname!subformname.Form!controlname ?

 

[Cavern]

When you make a form a subform, you need to change how you reference it.

Forms!mainformname!subformname.Form!controlname

So I have to go through all the code in the original form and change any references from Froms!mainformname!controlName to Forms!mainformname!subformname.Form!controlName ?

This is exactly what I was hoping I wouldn't have to do, modify the original form. I was hoping there was some way to re-use the original form, without modification (or with a modification that would still alow it to open as a stand-alone form) so that I would avoid maintaining two copies of the same form, one with the VB code referencing the Me.ControlName and the other with the Forms!mainformname!subformname.Form!controlName ...

I'm guessing no-one knows any way to do this?

 

[Cavern]

OKay, I think I found the reason that my form is messing up, its because on the form, it wasn't the VB code as I suspected, its a couple of list-boxes on the form that have a SQL statement of this type:

SELECT Categories.Name
  FROM Categories INNER JOIN ArticleCategories ON Categories.Category_ID=ArticleCategories.Category_ID
  WHERE (((ArticleCategories.Article_ID) Like [Forms]![Article Information]!Article_ID))
  ORDER BY Categories.Name;

The [Forms]![Article Information]!Article_ID is whats screwing it up, prompting the user for the value of Article_ID when this form is palced as a subform. I tried changing it to 'Me!Article_ID' but no dice. Any ideas?

 

[Cavern]

Thank you. I'll look into doing it the way you mentioned, by creating the function. Thank you also for pointing out the 'Like' in my code.