You can use the Validation Rule property and the Validation Text property of a form control to validate data that is input to that control and to help users who input data that is not valid.

Tip:  If you create a form automatically from a table by using one of the Form commands on the ribbon, any validation for fields in the underlying table are inherited by the corresponding controls on the form.

A control can have a different validation rule from the table field to which the control is bound. This is useful if you want the form to be more restrictive than the table. The form rule is applied, and then the table rule is applied. If the table is more restrictive than the form, the rule defined for the table field takes precedence. If the rules are mutually exclusive, they prevent you from entering any data at all.

For example, suppose you apply the following rule to a date field in a table:

<#01/01/2010#

But you then apply this rule to the form control that is bound to the date field:

>=#01/01/2010#

The date field now requires values earlier than the year 2010, but the form control requires dates have that year or later, thus preventing you from entering any data at all.

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