It came to pass on 09/21/96 that GEOFF WRIGG wrote concerning Counter 
Field Question...
 
GW> Does anyone know how to get a Counter field to start with a value
GW> other than 1?  I'm constantly building/refining an Access database
GW> for customer/client info, and we may end up someday having to merge
GW> batches of records from several different sources.  I'm using a
GW> Counter field as a Record ID and primary key, so of course I'd like
GW> to be able to merge these batches of records without the Record IDs
GW> colliding.
GW> Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
My first suggestion would be to find the Access Knowledge base, off the 
Microsoft Web Site. Look for acc2kb.exe or acc7kb.exe in the developers 
only section.
If you just want to combine two identicle tables, you can use an append 
query and append all the fields except the ID field. Of course, if you 
have relationships which depend on the ID number, which you probably do 
have, then that will stuff things up.
I'm still a little unsure of what you are trying to do. Personally I 
think counters are more trouble than they are worth, so I end up with 
the rather clumbsy alternative of using a DMax on the ID field and 
adding on to the result and putting the value in a read only field on 
the form. At least then you have the new ID on screen and can link the 
field to a subform. This was the very first problem I had to solve in 
access and I havn't used counters ever since.
Cya Matt               __  _     ____            ____
                 ---+=| =\|=| ==| ===) =========| ===' =============+-!-
matthewj@gil.com.au   |_|\__|ew |_|\_\esolution |____,ommunications
 * RM 1.31 3332 * Some days you're the windshield, some days the bug.
--- 
---------------