Is it good practice to have 2 data entry forms for the same table?

[Hargo]

Hi, I'm a bit of a newbie using Access 2013

I have a data entry form for New Patient Admissions which opens up from a New Patient data entry form and inserts the NHS Number (using OpenArgs) then sets the focus to the next control and positions the cursor with SelStart

My Problem is that occasionally an existing patient may be re-admitted and when the Admissions form is opened up by itself the NHS Number cannot be passed across so sets to 000000000 and the focus goes to the next control etc.


It's purely cosmetic (and users don't see tables etc) so should I just create a copy of the Admissions form and remove the OpenArgs code so it can just be used for admitting existing patients? Will any problems I haven't thought about occur?

 

[pbaldy]

I wouldn't have 2 forms unless I couldn't get around it (I'm lazy, don't want to maintain 2 identical forms). In your code, you can test for Null OpenArgs and don't do anything in that case. That lets you open the form to edit a record or add a new record as desired.

 

[Hargo]

Thanks pbaldy but I wouldn't know how to do that, I got help on the original OpenArgs!!

What do you mean by 'maintain' 2 identical forms? What maintenance are we talking about? Told you I was a newbie haha

 

[pbaldy]

I mean that if you have a form and you need to add a field, change the layout or whatever, you'll have to do it all twice if you have 2 basically identical forms.