[AccessD] VBA Unbound data entry / update form

 > Question, are the people entering this data ever actually 
EDITING information?

I don't sit and look over their shoulder, however I suspect 
that they do.  These records are any and all "contacts" with 
a specific individual or company.  Any given claim now has 
hundreds of contacts.  As I listed before there are 
literally dozens or even hundreds of different people that 
may be contacted to process a claim.  These are disability 
claims so there may be employers, witnesses, friends, 
acquaintances, lawyers, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, 
spouses, children, neighbors, dogs, cats, and the man in the 
moon.  These claims can pay out 20K per month to a doctor on 
disability, this is BIG money and they track (and check up 
on) EVERYTHING.

I suspect that the reason they want all of the "contacts" 
with any given entity in one record is simply for ease of 
reading what was discussed with that contact.  Imagine 23 
phone calls to try and get ahold of the spouse.  12 are no 
answer, 5 are "I can't talk right now" and 2 are "here's the 
skinny".  Now, if each of these are in a separate record, 
separated in time and space with calls to the dog, the 
milkman, the physician, some other physician, the private 
investigator... Well... to some people it just makes sense 
to have a single "spouse" contact record.  Dump it all in, 
in date order, plainly marked and be done.

This is not a computer fix it help desk where there are a 
handful of calls and the problem is fixed, there are a 
minimum of dozens and often several hundred contacts in many 
cases.  I have seen one case where there were around 250 
contacts with JUST the spouse, trying to get her to repay an 
overpayment.  And any given claim won't always have specific 
contacts, some have spouses, some don't, some have lawyers, 
some don't, some have 20 DIFFERENT lawyers (and physicians, 
and hospitals, and drug stores).

Soo... yea, they are constantly editing the memo fields, 
adding new info about contacting that entity.  Each 
"contact" is date / time stamped with the initials of the 
person making contact, embedded right in the text.  I know 
that they do use searches right in the memo field looking 
for keywords and what is the point of clicking "again" 47 
times to read 47 "no answer" records?

I just don't "get" what the point is, and why the fixation 
on splitting the memo into different records.

If I split it up, how do I reassemble all the milkman 
contacts, all the physician contacts, all the spouse, dog, 
cat, neighbor etc.  More to the point, why bother?  They 
have a system that works, all it needs is to not lock the 
record when the field is edited.  I can do that with 
Gustav's unbound memo and a lock field.

I think the time spent fixating on normalizing things would 
be better spent on examining your navel.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Drew Wutka wrote:
> Question, are the people entering this data ever actually EDITING
> information?  That is the real question.  Are they ever going back into
> a SAVED record and changing data that was already entered.  I'm not
> talking about changing a record, I'm talking about changing the data
> that already exists within the record?
> 
> You can do this VERY easily without ANY 'data checking' necessary if you
> split these entries up into their own records, with an unbound form.
> You can also make the form LOOK like they are adding the data to the
> same 'record'.  You can even go as far as creating a query that will
> display all of this data in one field, in case they have some bazaar
> reason for wanting it all in one physical field (there is no logical
> difference between a table and query...).  And MOST importantly, it can
> all be done without ever having a user run into a record lock.  All of
> this can be done in a very brief amount of time.
> 
> Drew