Exploring Forms

Access tables are dense lists of raw information. It will probably be quite simple for you to work directly with tables in a database you create for your own use, but might be overwhelming for people who don't know much about databases. To make it easier to enter, retrieve, display, and print information, you can design forms through which people can interact with your database.

A form is essentially a window containing controls that either display information to people or accept information that people enter. Access provides a collection of standard Windows controls, such as labels, text boxes, option buttons, and check boxes. With a little ingenuity, you can create forms that look and work much like the dialog boxes in all Windows applications.

A form acts as a friendly interface for a table. Through a form, you can display and edit the records of the underlying table, or create new records. As with tables and queries, you can display forms in several views. The three most common views are:

• Form view, in which you enter data

• Datasheet view, which looks essentially like a table

• Design view, in which you work with the elements of the form to refine the way it looks and works

Most forms link to only one table, but if you want to link to multiple tables from one form, you can embed other forms (subforms) within a form (then referred to as the main form). The form shown above in Design view includes label controls containing text that appears in the form in Form view, and text box controls that will contain data from the underlying table. Although you can create a form from scratch in Design view, you will probably use this view most often to refine forms you create by using a wizard.

In this exercise, you will explore forms, subforms, and the available form controls.

USE the 06_Forms database. This practice file is located in the Chapter01 subfolder under SBS_Access2007.

OPEN the 06_Forms database.

1.	In the Navigation Pane, under Forms, double-click Orders. The Orders form opens. This form consists of a main form and a subform. The main form displays information from the Orders table. The subform, which looks like a datasheet in the middle of the main form, displays the information from the Order Details table for the current record.
2.	In the form window, on the record navigation bar, click the Next Record button a few times to display the next few records. Next Record Notice that the subform changes with each click to display the items purchased on that order.
3.	Click the Bill To arrow to display a list of all customers who have placed orders. This is an example of a list box control.
4.	In the Navigation Pane, under Forms, double-click Products. The Products form opens in Form view. The purpose of this form is to edit or create product records.
5.	On the Home tab, in the Views group, click the View arrow, and then in the list, click Design View. This is the view in which you can add controls to a form.
6.	Note that two Form Design Tools contextual tabs, Design and Arrange, were added to the Ribbon when you switched to Design view. Switch to Form view and then back to Design view to see this happen. Contextual tabs are available only when you are working on an object that needs the tools on it.
7.	On the Design contextual tab, point to each of the buttons in the center section of the Controls group to display the name of the control in a ScreenTip. You can use these controls to assemble custom forms for your database.

CLOSE the Orders and Products forms without saving your changes, and then close the 06_Forms database.

Tip

To change the level of detail displayed in ScreenTips, click Access Options on the Office menu. The ScreenTip Style list at the top of the Popular page displays the detail options: Show feature descriptions in ScreenTips, Don't show feature descriptions in ScreenTips, and Don't show ScreenTips.