Creating a form from scratch

To create a form from scratch rather than basing it on an auto form, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Database Manager and right-click your mouse.

  2. Select New and then Form from the displayed menu. A "Create Form Wizard" dialog is displayed.

  3. On the first page of the dialog choose the layout of the form in the Types box:

Click on Next to go to the following page.

  1. On this page choose whether you want to base the form on a Table, Query or Relation. Selecting, say, Table causes all the tables in your database to be displayed in the Choose a database object box. Click on the table (or query or relation) you want the form to be attached to, and then click on Next.

  2. On this page you choose which fields in the table (query or relation) you want to appear in the form. Select these one by one in the Available Fields box and click on the Add button each time to move them to the Selected Fields box (use the Add All button if you want to move all of the fields across). You can determine the order of the fields as you are doing this. If you make a mistake or change your mind, use the Remove buttons.

  3. Click on Finish.

A new form is created and displayed in design mode. The fields chosen from the attached table (or query or relation) are displayed in the order and with the form layout type you set.

It is a good idea at this point to save the form and give it a name. Select Save Form from the File menu. You will then be asked to give the form a name. Click on OK once you have done this.

Note that in form design mode the drawing toolbar is displayed. This has the same functionality as the toolbar in Draw. You can draw lines, shapes and frames, and add text. See Creating a drawing.

Ability allows you to insert database fields (that is, fields from the attached table that you may have forgotten to select in Available Fields), formula fields, summary fields, table grids, page numbers, date and time, pictures, and other objects.

You can resize form fields and inserted fields or move them to different locations in the form: click on the field and drag the handles to resize, or move the field by dragging and dropping the whole field in a new position when the crossed arrows appear.

See:

Inserting fields into a form

Inserting a page number into a form or report

Inserting the date and time into a form or report

Inserting a picture into a form or report

Inserting an object into a form