please help me!

[Access_help_rob]

Hey, ive got a table which holds purchase orders and a field next to it which holds notes against that purchase order. i then have a form which brings up those purchase oders nd you can enter notes against the purchase orders. my problem is that i have a search button but its very tempramental and sometimes it works but sometimes it doesnt. When i type a purchase order in the text box where they appear and press enter i am hoping for it to go to that number but i get an error saying i will create duplicates in the table which i dont want to add it i just want to make it appear please help me thanks
rob

 

[neileg]

First bit of help: When you post a question give an indication of the problem in the title of the post. 'Please help me!' is not a good title.

Second bit: You are not clear about what you have. On the one hand you mention a search button, and on the other you say you are typing in the box where the data appears.
I can't comment on the search button, what does it do?
If you have a form that displays your purchase orders and you enter an existing purchase order ID into a blank record, Access will attempt to add this record, but it finds that you are trying to duplicate an existing ID so rejects it. This tells me that the form is for data entry or editing and has not been designed for searching.
To search on your existing data you need to run a query to find the record that matches your user input. This is known as a parameter query. If I was designing this I would create a form to ask for the user input, link this to the parameter query and then display the results in another form.

 

[Autoeng]

Another thing that is quite helpful in your situation is a drop down combo box populated with tht PO numbers. It is quite easy to mistype a number to display but the box will show you what is available to select from, therefore no typing involved.