i'm really not seeing what your talking about. ok, i'm in design view. i have all of the field names, the data type, and a description for each. when i highlight the row with the field name "total value" and click properties a window opens up for database properties. that window has one tab "general". i've searched around and can't find anything that resembles Controllsource. it is in the help menu, but it's not very helpful.