Entry Forms

Your database performs many task, and storing data is just one of them. After you have tables, you need a way to enter and modify data. The most efficient way to work with your data is through forms. Forms let you determine what data is displayed and what types of changes you can make to it.

A properly designed form will help your users enter data more quickly and accurately. If you're creating an Access application to replace a process that currently uses paper forms, you can design your Access forms to look just like the paper forms. In this way, this can help ease the transition from paper to computer. You can also apply rules that limit the type of data the form accepts, which protects the data from some typos and other human errors.

The PivotTable and PivotChart forms are for advanced analysis of large amounts of data. You won't need to use them in this section

In Chapter 6 - "Tapping the Power of Relationships," you added a lookup field to the TypeID field in the Plants table. You are told to then that a form will inherit a lookup field, and that's just what happened with the Plants form. The TypeID control in the form shown in the fig - is a combo box control - you can tell by the drop-down arrow to the right of the control.

If you used the New Object list's version of the AutoForm to create a form based on the Plants table, it will not create a subform, even though that table has two relationships: one with Catalogs and one with Types. The wizard cretes a subform, when the form you specify contains the primary key value in a relationship. The primary key in Plants is not related to any other table - only the Plants table's foreign key values are related to the other tables.

Did you notice that the CommonName label to the left of that control is not completely visible? (Depending on your system's display properties, this might not occur in your form, so do not worry if it does not) Thata's just one of the small annoyances you'll run into when using a wizard; it simply did not allow enough room.

Graphic files vary greatly, and there's no way to guarantee the quality of each file from record to record. You can improve a picture, but that's a bit beyond the scope of this chapter.

If you change your mind while you're entering a record, you can press Esc twice to delete the record before it's saved.

You would not always want to view existing records while entering new ones. When that's the case, select Data Entry from the Records menu and Access will remove existing data from the from and update the record numbers in the navigation bar. To return the records, select Remove Filter/Sort from the Records menu.

Not all forms allow you to enter new records. If the New Record button is disabled, you'll know the form is just for browsing and editing existing data.

Do not assign a primary key just to sort data. From the discussion, "Planning a Database," you might remember that a primary key's function is to uniquely identify a record - sorting is just a by-product.

A quick sort can filter records. It does not limit the records, but it does group the records by the sort field. You can then browse a particular group without first applying a more complex filter or query

You might have noticed that the Remove Filter and Apply Filter buttons use the same icon. Do not let that confuse you because you can not make a mistake by clicking the button at the wrong time. The buttons perform the appropriate risk.

Throughout this chapter, all the forms have been based on tables, but do not forget that you can also base a form on a query. Doing so provides a permanent means of filtering and sorting the form's data. Eventually, you might find that you seldom base a form on a table and that you rely a great deal on queries to provide the data for your forms.