What are forms?

“Forms” are typically used in Access to enter data in “Tables”.
If you enter data via a form field, this data is added to the specific table (s) which has associated fields.

The use of forms for entering data in our “Tables” simplifies data entry for the user, and simultaneously gives us more control over the import of this data.

The “Form Wizard” (“Form Wizard”)

The “Form Wizard” is an easy way to design “Forms”.
A form is based on data from a table or query.

To start the “Form Wizard”, we select the “Forms” object in the “Object window” and click “New”.
In the “New Form” dialog box, choose a table or query in the drop-down menu at the bottom.

Click OK

This opens the “Form Wizard” that will lead us step by step through various windows.

In the first window we see all the fields from our table (available fields) in the left half of the window .

We select the fields that we need in our form and move it to the right half of the window (selected fields) by selecting the field and clicking the “>” button, or if we want to use all fields, we can click on the button ‘>>”.
Then click on “Next”

(“Next”).

In the next window we choose the layout for our form.
The Pivot Table and Pivot Chart options are available only for versions Access 2003 and Access XP.

We choose a layout and click “Next”.

In the next window we choose a style.

Choose the one that suits you and click “Next”.

Then give the form a title and click “Finish” to show the table data in the form.

In the form “Design view”   we can make corrections to our form lay-out.
We can change the fields, add or remove fields, add colors to text and / or background, but we will see more about this later.

Creating “Auto Forms”

This method of designing forms is the easiest and quickest.

We choose the object again in the Form “Properties window” and click “New”.

We have a choice of three to five different “Auto Forms”, depending on the Access version you use.

Make your choice, choose a table and click OK.

In itself, this style of form is not much, but it gives a lot of ease and simplicity of implementation.

The use of forms

Once you’ve created the form, we use the navigation buttons below the form to browse through the records in the table.
We can also add or modify records.
We can use the “Tab” key on our keyboard to move to the next field in the record mode.

Form “Design View” and “Reports”

We can design and modify forms and reports in “Design View”. Access may well appear complex with its various objects and various views, but actually we use the same “Design View” (“Design View”) For both, “Forms” and “Reports”.

This simplifies our design of these objects.

The only real difference between “Forms” and “Reports” is that “Forms” are used to transfer data to read, add or change, and “Reports” only serve to display data from our table.

To open both ‘Forms’ and “Reports” in the Design View”, we have only one option; that is to click the Design button  and choose “Design View”.

“Ruler” and “Grid”

When we create or edit “Forms” and “Reports” in “Design View”, we note that we have a “Ruler” and “Grid”.

We can turn it on or off by clicking on “View” in the menu bar.

These two can help us in formatting and aligning fields.

When we place fields or buttons on our “Forms” / “Reports”, we can use the option “Snap to Grid”. This will force the item that we place in our form to align on the “Grid”.

We can also disable this option by clicking on “Format” in the menu bar and “Snap to Grid”.

Some of us will find it easier to align the items with “Snap to Grid” while others do not.

Creating a form in “Design View”

Most forms are linked to a table or query from which they extract the data.We therefore select “Forms” in the “Objects window” and click “New” to create a new form.Select “Design View”, and select a table or query in the dropdown list box at the bottom of the dialog box.And click OK

In the “Form Design View”, we have a list (field list) with all available fields from our table.

If it is not visible on your screen, click the “Field List” button.

Click and drag the fields from the “Field list” (“Field list”) to the form.
The items from our “Field List” and “Toolbox” are called as controls

(controls).

If you have dragged from the field list to the form you will see that it consists of two parts, on the left the name of the field as it is called in the table and on the right, data contained in that field in our table.

In the next lesson we will see how the layout of the fields may change.

You can always adjust the width of the form:

Point your mouse pointer over the edge of the form, click and drag the form to the desired height or width.

Note also that we have a lot more controls in the toolbox (toolbox), which we use in our form.

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