Summary

In this chapter, we've looked at various ways you can structure the forms in your system. At the highest level, you have a choice between an SDI system that displays all its data in a single window and an MDI system that uses multiple windows.

SDI systems have two variations: workbooks and the Outlook-style interface, each of which has advantages in certain situations. More variety exists in MDI applications, from the classic MDI through the switchboard architecture supported by the Access Database Wizard applications, and including the project architecture exemplified by Visual Basic. Finally, wizards can be a useful architecture for supporting infrequent tasks and complex work processes.

In the next chapter, we'll turn from the organization of forms to the structure of the forms themselves, when we look at determining form layout based on the structure of the entities in the data model.