Thank you Jonny J for taking the time to look at the code and for your honest elauation and opinion. Advice such as that is truly valuable. I will explore alternative options.

I do appreciate your help. I have also been away from my computer while traving on business.

Well as it turns out English is my first language and I have a good command of it in both written and verbal form. You are not a helpful individaul, you are simply mean spirited. I do not need to ask you what the "A" in EllittA stand for, your behavior has demonstrated what you are.

ElliotA Hey I never claimed to be a wiz at VB and if I have written something here that has embarrased you, then you've got a problem I am not embarrased to say the I am learning, that I do not know everything, and to ask for help.

Luc Thanks for your insights. I could rename the forms that have identical names and move them all into my program, but I am confused by doing this. First vb.net has a feature for adding existing projects into the users project (I suspect it is there for a reason). Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo which would (I believe) cause problems if renamed or modified. And lastly the Article's instructions clearly state to "set the Form1 (in the registration code) as the startup project". This last piece of information tells me that all of these files should remain as projects. So back to my question, how does one call a form in a different project?

Thanks for the response. My first thought was to interpet the instructions literally and add two forms to my project. This does not work 1) because the the project can not have two forms with the same name, and 2) the registration program has more the two forms. I then added the registration project as an existing project to my project. There were actually three projects in the registration program so I left the "About" project out. Once I set the registration project to be the startup project, the registration program does begin, however it gives me a registration program error, telling me that my computer date has been changed and will not continue. Once I disable that section of code, I can now see the registration menu. I am now to the point that I need to learn how to have one project call a form in a second project. I will still need to circle back to the date issue because something is clearly wrong there. Any help on the proper code to have the registration program call my original Form1 when the registratio "Continue" button is clicked would be appreciated.

At the link below, there is an article on this site that provides code to install a program registration system, but the instructions on how to use the code is a bit vague. I posted a question following the article, but thought I may have a better chance of receiving help by posting here. Can anyone provide me with a better explanation on how to install this code into my project? VB.NET 2003 User Registration Form (2.1)

Thanks for the reply. I would like to get this to work properly. This is my first attempt at programing with vb.net and using a database. In the past all of my projects used text files for input an writing. This is very different. I made the change to the WHERE clause in the Wizard to

... WHERE [Boat Name] = @xid

Now in my form I have this code:

OleDbDataAdapter1.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add("@xid", NVarChar).Value = xid
OleDbDataAdapter1.Fill(QuotaPounds1.Balance)

NVarChar is underlined with the explanation that it is not declared. If I edit this to VarChar it remains underlined with the explanation that it is not declared. If I make it Char, it is still underline but now the explanation is that it is "a Type and so is not a valid expression". I thought that the value in that spot was supposed to be a "Type". Any guidance you can provide on the syntax here would be most appreciated.

I am using vb.net 2003 for a stand alone windows program. I access an Access 2002 database file via Jet 4.0 and OleDbDataAdapter. The program is like a "check book" for commercial fishermen to track their landings in relation to the amount of "quota" that they have been assigned. The program is structured so a fisherman can enter multiple boat names and track each one seperately. To work on a particular boats account, the fisherman would select a boat name from a drop down list. The boat name is then captured and assigned the string variable name of "xid" and in a Module have this code:

Public xid as String

I used the DataAdapter Configuration Wizard to setup the data connection and assign the DataAdapter and DataSet. I went into Wizard generated code and manually entered a WHERE clause to filter the data for the selected boat. Doing this the program works fine. The code that works is:

... WHERE [Boat Name] = '" & xid & "'

. However, if I return to the Designer view I get an error message: The variable 'xid' is either undeclared or was never assigned. And the entire SELECT statement is erased. If I try letting the Wizard generate the WHERE clause when I enter:

... WHERE [Boat Name] = '" & xid & "'

, the code that is generated is has double double quotas as:

... WHERE [Boat Name] = '"" & xid & ""'

, and this does not show data on my form. I have gone through every possible combination of single quote and double quotes and can not get the wizard to produce the syntax that works. And if I manually edit the wizard generated code the program works, but I can not return to the Designer view. Does any one have a suggestion or solution?

Ashfield I want to thank you and Walt Fair for the response. You both mentioned SQL Express and I will look into it. I do not do a lot of this sort of work, that is why I am still using vb.net 2003. I used an Access database because that it what I had handy, but I am early enough in this project that I can switch easily. As far as the species names as column headings. I understand your point, but for good or bad, the fishery that this program is to used in is one that is managed by the Federal Governemnt and has a management plan that identifies exactly the species involved, so adding new species will not be an issue.

I am working on a program that will access an Access database. I am using VB.net 2003. My program in part will record the landings of commercially caught fish. I have structured the database with species names as the column heading and then the rows would be a record of each delivery. A fisherman could make around 50 deliveries in one year. I have in excess of thirty species in this table as column headings. When I use the DataGrid object, the default is to present my database as it is created with speices names as columns headings. Is there a way to switch the rows and columns when it is being displayed in the program, so the species names become the row headings and the data are shown to the right as a column of data?