looking up fields, past girlfriends

[joecollver]

I have two fields in a database, one is short and to the point, the other is detailed. Let's call them PrereqSummary and PrereqDetail. When a new record is created, User A fills in the PrereqSummary. Later, User B, a prereq specialist, will fill in PrereqsDetail. I'd like to have PrereqDetail look up the text in PrereqSummary and start with that as its initial value, so that UserB doesn't have to retype everything UserA entered. The problem I'm having is that look up fields are calculated when a new record is created, so no matter what is typed in PrereqSummary you won't see it in PrereqDetail. Is there a way to change when the actual looking up of the value is performed? Or maybe there is a better way to do this.

[CobaltSky]

I must admit I've never thought of using FileMaker to lookup past girlfriends!

But seriously, what you are describing can be achieved very elegantly without using lookups at all,

What I suggest you do is to set an auto-enter by calculation formula for PrereqDetail and define the formula as PrereqSummary.

Then the first time text is entered into the PrereqSummary field it will be transferred to PrereqDetail (however subsequent changes or additions to PrereqSummary will have no effect on PrereqDetail unless its contents have since been deleted).

Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised?!