Let's take a look at an example. Often times, it is useful to know when a record has been created in your Access database. So we've created a Customers table that contains a field called Create_Date. We will use this field to store the exact date and time of when the record was created.
This is an example of a form that we've created. There is code on the "Before Insert" event of this form to update the field called Create_Date. When you are viewing this form in "form mode", you can not see the field called Create_Date.
However, if you view this form in Design View, you will notice that there is, in fact, a field called Create_Date. This field has been set to "not visible" so that the user can not interfere in the "Before Insert" event code that will run.
When a new record is inserted into the Customers table, the Create_Date field will be updated with the current system date/time.
The VBA code is quite simple:
Private Sub Form_BeforeInsert(Cancel As Integer)
'Set the Create_Date field in the Customers table to the current system
'date when a new record is created
Create_Date = Now()
End Sub
