 <p><code>!</code> is used to reference one member of a collection ... <code>CollectionName!MemberName</code></p> <p><code>Forms</code> is the name of a collection whose members are <code>Form</code> objects, and includes those forms which are currently open in your Access session.</p> <p>A <code>Form</code> has a collection of <code>Control</code> objects. So appending <code>!ControlName</code> to the form reference gets you a reference to that control.</p> <p>So <code>Forms![HiddenUserCheck]![txtStatus]</code> refers to a control named <em>txtStatus</em> in a form named <em>HiddenUserCheck</em> which is open in your Access session.</p> <p>What you get from that reference is the control's default property, <code>Value</code> ... the value contained in that control.</p>