I'm creating a database for a catalog and need to use multiple page numbers for some items. If I make the page number field numeric I can't find the second or third page number, if I make the field text the pages won't sort or find properly.

Example: Item ABC1234 is on pages 43 and 87

I'm up for suggestions on how to enter the numbers. Have tried 43|87 but that won't work either. 43,87 doesn't work. I can find by 43 but not 87.

Please forgive if I'm not making sense!

Why don't you make the pages individual records in a related table?

I've thought about that but am not sure if that's going to work because it's more than one catalog so do I make a related table for each catalog? Then how do I display the layout for entering and sorting by page number? Would a find by page number work? Sorry just thinking outloud.

A little more detail would be useful here, but it looks like you could use a table of Items, a table of Catalogs, and a join table of Placements (ItemID, CatalogID and PageNumber). You can enter Placements directly into a portal, from the item and/or from the catalog record.

Thank you so much for all of your help, guess I need to read up about join tables -) I can make relations but not sure how to make them all work together. Thank you again!!!

I suggest you have a look at the demo I posted here:

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/246136/

If you rename Contacts to Items, Organizations to Catalogs and Affiliations to Placements, and change the Date field in Affiliations to PageNumber, I believe you'll have a reasonable starting point.