They should be able to hit Esc (perhaps twice) to clear all data entered on
the form.
that did the trick thx again.

one part of the interface is bugging me. the cboSubject and cboStudent
display in column format in the subform in form view, left to right.
however, i want the cboStudent in the left column and the cboSubject in the
right column. how can i switch them?