the description is a custom property of the query, that only gets created when you add a description.
You can read it with DAO, and it might be stored in a system table. You could possibly store a table of the queries, and keep notes in there (if it's not in a system table). It's not ideal.
currentdb.querydefs("queryname").description
currentdb.tabledefs("tablename").description
that sort of thing.
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edit - I thought I would check, and it isn't that - so I am looking more closely now.
right, I was sort of correct, and it's curious.
It is a custom property, but you can't use the above syntax.
You can use this syntax.
You get error 3265, not in collection if the "description" hasn't been created.
{I previously said it takes a few seconds to display - what appears to be taking time is initialising the querydef object}
currentdb.querydefs("queryname").properties("description")
currentdb.tabledefs("tablename").properties("description")