HI im new to the forum and new to access. I just recently took a position with alot of acces develpment involved.

My first ques tion is how to pass a value from one form to the next. i want to keep track of what user edits certain records i've set up a simple log in form and want to edit a table in an other form and store the editors details in a seperate column on the table. Any suggestions

it can all be done using VBA, specifically Recordsets and Global Variables

You can also use the lookup wizard, which is a lot easier. It is a type in the Access table design view. But first, you must create a relationship between the tables.

Can any body recommend a good tutorial online for global variable. I've been looking but can't seem to find anything. I thought of the idea of global variable but have no idea how to implement them in access. Im completely new to it.

Also can anybody recommend any good book on acces development. I've been looking at Access Cookbook and Accesible Access 2003 but have'nt come to a decition yet

You can do a table lookup if the data has been tabled (saved to a table). However, I am more likely to just reference the control on the first form.

For example: frmFormA has a field "AccountNumber" on it, and I want to open a second form that is associated with the first. The second form should display additional data for the same account number as the first. With the first form open, I would OpenForm frmFormB based on a query with the data to display, and as criteria for frmFormB's query, I would set the criteria for the "AccountNum" field to be forms!frmFormA!AccountNumber. This delivers all the information to the second form via the query, which is limited by the criteria to display only data for the same account number displayed in frmFormA. No coding, no lookup, just borrowing a cup of [data] sugar from the first form!

Hope that helps.