Selecting Record on subform based on which button was pushed

[Walt in Decatur]

I have a database I'm using to build information about a laboratory building design. After I create a record for a space and input general info, I move to a subform where I'd like to record any equipment that will go into that space. This subform (which is a sourceobject for a "display" subform for many others) has for its controlsource a table which is merely a listing of the equipment.

For each actual listing, I'd like to have a button on the list form that opens up an equipment detail form that allows me to input particulars for that specific equipment, like electricity demand, size, etc. This form has as its controlsource a table of equipment details

Being still a simpleton newbie (no formal training in databases whatsoever) I'm not sure how to set up the relationships between tables and set up any filters that would allow me by clicking on a button on the equipment list form for a particular room to get to one and only record for that piece of equipment, say the room name is "Lab" and if it has three pieces of equipment then there Equip_Button_1 should open up only the record for equipment piece number one, and so forth.

Any and all help will be appreciated. It seems like my detail list should be based on a query, no?

[NeoPa]

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but I gather you want buttons to match entries in a subset of your data. The normal way to do this would be to select an item using a ComboBox control.

If you want to open a form filtered to just the item selected in that ComboBox then check out Example Filtering on a Form.