CPT106: Access

Forms allow user view on tables or queries (combining information from several tables), also to make changes and update your data..

Creating Forms with Wizard

We use the form wizard, and we only use columnar forms (one record per page), but there are other possibilities. For read-only forms, you may want to "lock" or, even "disable" certain or all fields of the form. Right click on the field and choose. For input forms, you may also select default values here.

Creating/Changing Forms in Design View

You change into Design View by right-clicking on the blue bar on top of the window.

Parts of a form:

Form Header, Form Footer: identical for every record, only printed once on first (last) page.
Page Header and Footer: Only shown when printed, not in Form View.

Tab Controls

Toolbox: Right-click on the background of the form and select "toolbox" to display it, or use the "View" menu.

Field List: Right-click on the background of the form and select "fieldlist" to display it, or use the "View" menu.

Text Box: .............

Combo Box: Combo box values stem from the field values of a certain object, and may refer to (represent, are bound to) a field on the form.

If you create a combo box using the combo box wizard, first you determine the table and field where the values in your combo box should come from (or type in the values you want). In the last step, you tell what field of the form the combo box values refer to. or you choose "remember the value for later use" if the combo box should be "unbound".

With the wizard toggle button in the toolbox you can turn wizard support off and on.

With the wizard off, you would select the combo box in the toolbox and then drag the desired field from the field list on the form to select a bound combo box, for unbound ones you just click it in. You tell the combo box where the values should come from by right-clicking on it, selecting "Properties", "All" and changing the "Row Sources" values.

Subforms

A subform is a form within a form, commonly used for forms depending on several tables involving one-to-many relationships. You select two such related tables when you create your form using the wizard.

Menu Forms

Menu forms are "unbound", they don't connect to data in a table or query.

Sorting and Filtering

Sorting: Click on the field by which you want to sort, use the menu "Records|Sort Ascending" or use the quicksort buttons on your database toolbar. Undo with "Records|Remove Filter/Sort".

Filter by Selection: Click in the field, choose "Records|Filter|Filter by Selection". You filter only by one criteria.

Filter by Form: is used for filtering by multiple criteria.

Conditional Formatting

Erich Prisner, 11/22/2003