Forms do not have the ability to "hold" data. Only tables hold data permanently. Forms are ment to view or update data contained in tables. Bound forms (those that use a query or table as their recordsource), may contain bound controls (those that refer to a column in the form's recordsource as their controlsource). You can think of the bound form and bound controls as a "passthrough" to the underlying table where the data is actually held. If a control is not bound to the form's recordsource, there is no where for Access to save the data so it just goes away when the form is closed.
