Unit 11. Forms (I)

Forms generally serve to define screens with which to edit the records of a table or query.

In this unit we will see how to create a form, and how to operate it for the editing of records and changing its design.

Introduction.

To create a form we need to position ourselves in the database window with the Form object selected, if we then click on the button a window opens with the various ways we have to create a form:

Design view opens a blank form in design view, and we then need to incorporate the various object that we would like to appear in it. This method is not used much as it is easier and faster to create an autoform, or to use the wizard and afterward modify the design of the created form to adjust it to our needs. We will see ahead in this unit how to modify the form design.

Form wizard uses an a wizard that guides us step by step in the creation of the form.

Autoform consists of automatically creating a new form that contains all the data from the source table.

According to the type of form that we select (columnar, tabular,...) the form will present the data in a distinct way, when we click on one of the options, a sample will appear on the left side with the way in which the data will be presented with this option. E.g Autoform: columnar presents one record on a screen, meanwhile Autoform: tabular presents all the records on one screen and every record in a row.

In order to use this function we first need to fill out the Choose the table or query where the object's data comes from: with the name of the source. This will be the only data to introduce, and once introduced we select the kind of autoform and click on OK button, and Access does the rest.

Chart Wizard uses a wizard that guides us step by step in the creation of a graphic.

Pivot table wizard uses a wizard that guides us step by step in the creation of dynamic table.

We will next explain how to create a form using the wizard.

The Form's wizard

To start the wizard we can do it as describe in the last point, or a faster way would be from the Database window with the Forms object selected, by double clicking on the Create form using wizard option.

The first window of the wizard appears:

In this window we are asked to introduce the fields to include in the form.

Firstly we select from the Table/Queries box the table or query that we are going to get the data from, this will be the form source. If we want to extract data from various tables it would be better to first create a query to obtain this data and then select this query as the form source.

Next we will select the fields to include in the form by clicking on the field and then the button or simply double click on the field.

If we selected the wrong field click on the button and the field will be removed from ther selected fields list.

We can select all the fields at the same time by clicking on the button or deselect all the fields at once using the button .

Next we click on the Next> button and the window seen in the following example will appear...

In this screen we select the data distribution within the form. By selecting a format it will appear on the left side the way it will be seen in the form.

Once we have selected the distribution of our choice click Next and the following window will appear:

In this screen we select the forms style, we can select between the various defined styles that Access has. By selecting a style it will appear on the left side as it will in the form.

Once we have selected a style of our choice we click on the Next button and the last screen of the forms wizard will appear.

In this window we are asked for the title of the form, this title will also be the name assigned to the form.

Before clicking on the Finish button we can choose between:

Open the form to view or enter information, in this case we will see th result of the form ready for the editing of data, e.g:

or,

Modify the form's design, if we select this option the Form design view will appear where we can modify the aspect of the form, e.g:

If you would like to continue with this unit, go to the next page...

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