Assign a default value to a control

1. Open a form or data access page in Design view.
2. Make sure the control is selected, and then click Properties on the toolbar to open the control's property sheet.
3. Click the Data tab, and in the DefaultValue property box, type the default value (such as New York) or an expression (such as =Date()). If the string expression that you type includes commas or other punctuation, be sure to enclose the value in quotation marks. For example, to use "New York, NY" as the default value, type "New York, NY". In a form in a Microsoft Access database, if you need help creating an expression, click the Build button to use the Expression Builder.

Note   If you set the DefaultValue property for a field in table Design view and also set the DefaultValue property for a control bound to that field, the default value set for the control overrides the default value set for the field.