Could someone please tell me how to stop Access sorting my ISBN numbers into numerical order. I require the data to remain in the order in which it is entered, all my related tables use autonumber so this is not a problem, but I cannot Sort By autonumber so adding this to my Book table to over power the ISBN sort is not an option. Because I have seperate tables for Book and Author when I come to view the data Book and Author are not synchronised. M Regards M

If synchronisity is your problem ... have you tried creating a relationship between your book and author tables (Append an AuthorID column to your Book Table and optionally link the two fields in the relationship manager). You can then display books by author via a simple Form/Subform arrangement, and the author of a particular book via a combo box control on the AuthorID. If I've missed the point, and you do really need to maintian the order of your data by entry the two options below may help: 1. You CAN sort by an Auto Number field. Once the field is populated the data held within it behaves exactly like any other Long Integer. 2. If you really can't get Auto Numbring to work for you, try creating a date field in your book table with the default value set to Now(). Assuming you don't add records faster than 1 per second you will be OK.