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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T11:30:47+00:00

Okay, I’ve asked a similar question before, but I’ve spent about eight hours (really)

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Okay, I’ve asked a similar question before, but I’ve spent about eight hours (really) trying to figure this problem out with no luck.

So, I made this big Access form to modify “consortium” data, which has a record selector to change consortiums. I split the big form up into a navigation form so it wouldn’t all be on one page. However, now when you switch tabs it always reverts back to modifying the first consortium. I’d like to keep it consistent across different tabs.

Now, I’ve read up on forms and subform controls and linking fields, but I haven’t been able to successfully link each subform–ie, each tab–to the greater navigation form. The whole “link master fields/link child fields” thing doesn’t even show up. What gives? Isn’t each one a subform of the master form? It acts as though there’s no heirarchy there.

Here are some pictures to illustrate my point. On my “evaluations” tab, for instance, I’m able to include a subform, which is able to link to its master:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/n8IZD.png

However, I can’t link the whole evaluations subform to the greater navigation form. The option isn’t even there, and changing records on the greater form doesn’t change records in the evaluation subform:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/ROzec.png

Does anyone know how to fix that problem?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I don’t see ANY tab control on your example form. There is a difference between a tab control on form as opposed to a navigation form.

    The suggesting here is to use a tab control here. This is the control here:

    enter image description here

    So, you don’t want to use a navigation form for doing this, you want to use a tab control.

    A navigation form causes a FULL re-load of the form. And MORE important is when you switch to a different tab on a navigation form, it CAUSES A FULL UN-LOAD of the existing form, and re-loads in place a new form (so yes, in these cases, no only does a form load/unload occur, but record position is lost).

    So you want to use a tab control here, not a navigation form. A navigation form is really only a sensible choice for the top most navigation, NOT for sub forms that belong to a given parent form. In this case, you find using a tab control does the trick.

    And you will have to delete existing controls and re-drop them from the ribbon tool box to be able to place such controls on a GIVEN/SINGLE tab control. Or you can CUT + PASTE existing controls on a form onto the tab control

    Likely best way to do this is to highlight all controls on the form, move them down to make room for the tab control. You then drop in the tab control. You then select the controls you want to place on a particular tab (the ones you just moved down). You then choose cut, and then click on the page (tab control) you want, and do a ctrl-v. (or as noted, just re-drop the controls onto the tab control from the ribbon).

    So the confusing here was due to dropping in a navigation form as opposed to using a tab control. Using a navigation form will not quite work for this task.

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