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Jan's Working with Databases

   Forms & Reports: Forms: Form Wizard

Most of your forms will be used for entering and editing records. In Access Basics you learned how to use the Form button to quickly create an auto form, which got the job done, but it was boring and put all controls into a Stacked Layout in columns. This is an acceptable design only for very short forms!

Methods to Create a Form:

  • AutoForm
  • Form Wizard
  • Design or Layout View - Add controls manually

You already used an AutoForm in Project 2: Access Basics. An AutoForm can use only one table or query.

In this lesson you will learn how to create a form using the Form Wizard, which walks you through a set of choices. The Form Wizard lets you choose fields from more than one table or query. Then you can customize the form.

Form By Wizard

The Form Wizard walks you through the choices you need to make to create a simple form.

  • Ribbon tab Create > Form Wizard button Button: Form Wizard (Access 2010)
     

Steps in the Form Wizard:

Form WizardIcon: Mouse clickClick each step below to see the wizard's page at the right.

  • Step 1: Source for the data - one or more tables or queries and which fields to include
  • Step 2: Layout, one of 4 layouts (shown below) 
  • Step 3: Title for the form
     

Form Wizard: Layouts

In the Form Wizard you are offered 4 different layouts. Some are useful only for special situations. You cannot create your own layouts to add to this list.

Example of Form Layout: Columnar

Columnar is the standard layout, with fields in a vertical column.

Example of Form Layout: Tabular

Tabular puts the fields in a single row,
and adjusts the widths and heights.

Example of Form Layout: Datasheet

Datasheet looks just like a regular datasheet.
This layout is useful when you are pulling just a few fields from different tables. As you can see in the example, column widths can be a problem for easy viewing.

Justified packs the fields tightly together.
The fields for one record can be in several rows

Icon: Step-by-Step 

Step-by-Step: Form Wizard

 Icon: Step-by-Step
What you will learn: to use the Form Wizard to create a form

Start with:  Class disk,  resource files, worldtravel-Lastname-Firstname.accdb from the previous project.

  1. If necessary, open the World Travel database that you created in the previous project.  
  2. Save As to folder databases project4 folder on your Class disk.
    Create this folder if it does not exist.
  3. In the Navigation Pane, select the table Staff.
  4. On the Create ribbon tab, click on the button Form Wizard Button: Form Wizard (Access 2010).
    Icon: Access 2007 Access 2007: Click the More Forms button and then the Form Wizard command.
    The Form Wizard appears with the Staff table selected.
  5. Form Wizard: Select fieldsClick on the button >> to move all fields to the list of fields to the right so that they will be included in the form.

    TipAdditional tables/queries: At this point you could select another table or query from the list and add some or all of its fields to the Selected Fields list.
     
  6. Click on Next >.
     
  7. Form Wizard: Step 2 - LayoutSelect Columnar as the layout.
  8. Click on Next >.
  9. Dialog: Form Wizard - style (Access 2007)Icon: Access 2007 Access 2007: Select the style Access 2007 and click on Next > .
     
      
     
  10. Form Wizard : Step 4 - titleIn the last step of the wizard, keep the default choices, title for the form is "Staff" and the option selected is "Open the form to view or enter information."

  11. Click on Finish.
    Icon: Form View (Access 2010) The new form opens.

    Form View: Staff Form (Access 2007) Form View: Staff Form (Access 2010)
    Form View: Staff Form (Access 2013)Form View: Staff Form (Access 2016)

    Form Wizard Form - in different versions
    Not quite the same.

Icon: QuestionEvaluate: How usable is this form? How attractive is it?

Usable = Not great.

  • Controls and labels are the same size in each column in Access 2007 and 2010. The third column controls are narrower than the other two columns.
  • Some labels are cut off like EmailExtension and EmrcyContact.
  • A lot of space is wasted, like Prefix, Suffix, and Title.
  • Dates are aligned right while the other controls are aligned left.
  • Access 2010 has taller default height for controls.
  • The form won't fit in smaller size windows.
  • Access 2013 and 2016 do a better job with the layout overall.
  • Access 2016 uses a taller text box for the Home and Fax numbers but not for other phone numbers. What's with that?

Attractive = Dull!

This form will certainly not win any awards for design! Of course your idea of pretty and mine could easily be different.

This is a start, but it needs a LOT of work! (And thus we see why we need the next lesson!)

Forms