thanks for your quick reply. unfortunately, i think this is exactly what i am doing. in a stored procedure, i do the following:

old_field_value = oldval ('fieldname', 'tablename')
new_field_value = fieldname &&this is the new value for the field

I do this for every field in the table, and then store the old and new values each in their own field, with two fields per every field in the original table. every time there is a change to a field value in the original table, this stored procedure is triggered.

I was hoping there was an easier way, as my tables have a number of different fields (which makes it time consuming to create the stored procedure and also to track down the changed field in the update table). I had read about getfieldstate() and thought this might provide me an easier way, but i have not been able to get it to work.

paul