Forms

Video Summary

Covered in this section:

1. Creating Forms
2. Editing Forms
3. Adding in Pictures
4. Inserting Rectangles
5. Viewing Forms

Forms can be used to enter data instead of entering the data in a table. It is quick and easy and allows non-experienced users to use the database.

To create a Form, click the create tab at the top of the screen. This will bring up several menu boxes. Look for the one labled Forms. In this menu in the upper right corner is the Form Wizard. Click that to start the process.

This window allows you to select the fields you want in your form. In the first drop-down menu, you can choose where your fields are from: a table or a query. In this example, the fields will be from Table: Students, which we just created in the last section.

Under the Available Fields, choose the fields you want. Highlight the field and click on the > to transfer it to the Selected Fields window.

If you want all the fields click on the >> to bring all of the fields over to the Selected Fields window. Select all the fields, except for "Comment". Once the above fields have been selected, click on Next.

Next you will have to choose which layout you wish to use for the form. There are four layouts: Columnar, Tabular, Datasheet, and Justified. Choose one and click Next

1. Columnar: aligns all fields in columns
2. Tabular: creates a form that looks like a table
3. Datasheet: creates a form that looks like a datasheet
4. Justified: creates a form where all records are justified to one side

By clicking on one you can see a preview of it in the preview box to the left.

At the next dialog box, enter a title for your form and choose whether you wish to "Open the form to view or enter information" or "Modify the form's design". For the benifit of the next section click on "Modify the form's design". You can click Back to go back to any of the previous steps. If you're confident that your form is ready to be used, click Finish.

Your form is now created. It probably doesn't look like you want it to so, we'll have to do a little editing.

Exercise:

Create a form for your database.

Editing Forms

Basic Editing

There are two ways to begin editing forms. One is when you are in the last step of form creation you can choose to edit your form right away. The other way is to double click on the form you wish to edit in your objects menu on the left side of the screen, then click the arrow under the view and click Design View.

You will open up the Form design window. This is where we will be doing all of our editing. This will only cover basic editing techniques. Any advanced techniques should be researched by yourself.

You should notice that your form is quite compact and probably not very appealing; we can change that. To resize the form place the mouse cursor over either the left edge of the form or the bottom of the form. You will notice that the cursor changes to two arrows with a wide line in between them. Now just click, hold, and drag to whatever size you wish.

Changing the field positions and sizes are just as easy. Just click on which ever field you wish to move, hold the mouse button down and drag it. To resize the field click on the field and then click, hold and drag any of the black squares that appear around the field. You should now have a form that looks a little better, something like this:

Exercise:

Move the fields around and change the size of your form.

Adding a Picture

To add a picture you need to click Insert Image and then click Browse. Select the picture that you want. Once you have done that move your cursor to the form and click and drag on the image to change its size. The picture can change size once it's been created and can move. You can also change the properties of the image from the properties sheet on the right hand side of the screen.

Note: If the property sheet is not there right click on the image and click on the properties button at the bottom of the list.

Note:You can change the Size Mode to Strech to have the image grow and shrink to the exact shape of the box you make.

Exercise:

Insert a picture into your form.

Inserting Rectangles

Rectangles are used to better organize similar groups of data.
To insert one, first go to the top of the page. You will notice a box labled controls. In this box select the rectangle option, then click, hold, and drag the rectangle around of data you wish to group together.

If you want to change the color of the rectangle use the Property Sheet on the right side of the page. Select the rectangle then look at the Property Sheet for Border Color. Select the three dots beside it to select the new colour.

To change the thickness of the rectangle, first click on the border of the rectangle itself then look at the properties list. Look for the section called Border Width click on the space beside and then press the resulting arrow down to see all your border width options.

Exercise:

Insert rectangles into your form.

Finishing Touches - Changing Fonts and Adding Headers

When you're all finished inserting pictures and grouping data with rectangles, you may want to add a header or a footer to your form or change the color and size of your Font.

To change the font size, colour or any other property, click on a label or a text box. Do not highlight the text, you won't be able to make any changes if you do. Then you can change the settings of that object using the Property Sheet to the Right of the screen.

To create a header or a footer, click, hold and drag the bottom of the Form Footer or Form Header bars within the design window, as shown in the window on the left.

To view your finished form just click on the view button and click on form view. It could look something like this: