Are you getting the message, "The database engine does not recognize either the field 'Today's Date' in a validation expression, or the default value in the table '<your table name>'"? If so, that's not the same as saying you don't
have the field in your table.
The help topic for Field.DefaultValue property (in the DAO reference) says, "If the property setting is an expression, it can't contain user-defined functions, Microsoft Access database engine SQL aggregate functions, or references to queries, forms,
or other Field objects." I don't think you can set the default value to an expression referring to another field.
Dirk Goldgar, MS Access MVP
Access tips: www.datagnostics.com/tips.html