<p class="Paragraph"><help:to-be-embedded Eid="formulartext"><help:help-text value="visible">The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Form</span> icon opens a floating toolbar with the tools and functions needed to create an interactive form.</help:help-text></help:to-be-embedded></p>
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<p class="Paragraph">The floating toolbar can be opened with your mouse only if no control fields has been inserted into the document yet. If the latter is the case, you have to hold the mouse button down briefly when clicking the <span class="T1">Form</span> icon in order to open the floating toolbar. A short mouse click always activates the control field inserted last, which is represented as the active element on the icon.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Icon in the main toolbar:</p>
<p class="Paragraph">The form functions are available in text documents, HTML documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or drawings in OpenOffice.org. Even if you create a form in OpenOffice.org Base using the AutoPilot, you can edit it later using the form functions. Parts of a Form are special elements, e.g., text fields in which a user can enter text or buttons whose activation triggers a specific action. In OpenOffice.org, these form elements are called <help:link Id="66036" Eid="kontrollfelder" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Control Fields</help:link>. A document that contains controls is also called a form document.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">You can design a form by inserting the different control fields that you require for the form into the document and define their properties. Forms can also be linked to a database. The fields then contain the corresponding data to be written to the database or to be read and displayed from the database.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">When designing a Web page, you can create forms as HTML documents. These forms can be used for a user entering data to be sent over the Internet.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">In HTML documents, all possibilities for preparing a form are available; however, only the form characteristics that are supported in the selected HTML version can be exported. You can select the HTML version for the export under the Tools - Options - Browser - HTML Export menu.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:key-word value="controls; importing and exporting" tag="kw66036_75" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:to-be-embedded Eid="formularimexport" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">The form functions of your current OpenOffice.org version are not supported by versions before 5.0. When importing and exporting older document versions containing control fields, no conversion is performed. Instead of the control field and its properties, only red rectangles are imported and blue rectangles are exported; form properties are lost when importing and exporting.</help:to-be-embedded></p>
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<p class="Paragraph">In order to insert a specific form object into the document, click the corresponding icon on the floating toolbar. The mouse pointer then indicates with crosshairs that you can drag the object open in the document. In order to create a square control field, press the Shift key while dragging.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:key-word value="inserting; form fields" tag="kw66036_74" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="dragging and dropping; form fields" tag="kw66036_73" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>If you want to insert fields from the field list of a table or from a query into the form, simply drag them from the open table or query into the form. In text documents, a field command is inserted when using ordinary drag and drop; when dragging while holding the <help:switch select="System" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"><help:case select="MAC">Command</help:case><help:default>Ctrl</help:default></help:switch>+Shift key down, you create a form field.</p>
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<p class="Paragraph">After you have inserted a form control into the document, you can assign the desired properties to it. Select the control and click the <span class="T1">Control Properties</span> icon or choose the menu command of the same name in the context menu of the control. A dialog appears where you can define the properties.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">You can copy controls from one document to another by using Drag&Drop or by first copying them into the clipboard and then pasting them into the new document. At the same time OpenOffice.org analyzes the three properties; "database", "data source" and "type of data source" so that it can be inserted in the correct position in the logical form structure of the target document. A control, which shows contents from the address book, for example, will show address book contents after it has been copied into the target document. The control will be automatically inserted into the target document either in the existing form structure or the latter will be created.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><a name="kontrollfelder"/>The following control fields exist:</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a command button.</help:help-text> This function can be used, for example, to execute a command for a defined event, such as a mouse click.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create an option field.</help:help-text> This type of control enables the user to choose one of several options. Option fields with the same functionality are given the same name (<help:link Id="65921" Eid="name" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"><span class="T1">Name</span></help:link> property). Normally, they are given a <help:link Id="66036" Eid="gruppierungsrahmen" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">group box</help:link>.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a check box.</help:help-text> Check boxes allow you to switch a function in a form either on or off.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a field for displaying text.</help:help-text> These labels are only for displaying predefined text. Entries cannot be made in these fields.</p>
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<p class="Head2"><help:help-id value="SID_FM_GROUPBOX" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><a name="gruppierungsrahmen"/><help:key-word value="form functions; group boxes" tag="kw66036_57" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="group boxes; form functions" tag="kw66036_56" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="controls; group boxes" tag="kw66036_55" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="group boxes" tag="kw66036_54" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>Group Boxes</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a frame to visually group several controls.</help:help-text> In this way, you can, for example, group check boxes or option fields in a frame.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">If you insert a group frame into the document, the <help:link Id="66124" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">AutoPilot Group Element</help:link> starts, which allows you to easily create an option group.</p>
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<p class="Paragraph">Note: When you drag a group frame over already existing controls and subsequently want to select a control, you have to first open the context menu of the group frame and choose <span class="T1">Arrange Order - Send to Back</span>. Then select the control while pressing <help:switch select="System" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"><help:case select="MAC">Command</help:case><help:default>Ctrl</help:default></help:switch>.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Group fields use the visual view. A functional grouping of option fields can be done through the definition of names: Under the <help:link Id="65921" Eid="name" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"><span class="T1">Name</span></help:link> - Control Field Properties, enter the same name in order to group them.</p>
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<p class="Head2"><help:help-id value="SID_FM_EDIT" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="text box" tag="kw66036_53" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="form functions; text box" tag="kw66036_52" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="text box; form functions" tag="kw66036_51" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="controls; text box" tag="kw66036_50" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>Text Box</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a text box.</help:help-text> Text boxes are fields in which the user can enter text. In a form, text boxes display data or allow for new data input.</p>
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<p class="Head2"><help:help-id value="SID_FM_LISTBOX" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="list box" tag="kw66036_49" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="form functions; list box" tag="kw66036_48" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="list box; form functions" tag="kw66036_47" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="controls; list box" tag="kw66036_46" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>List Box</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a list box.</help:help-text> A list box lets users select an entry from a list. If the form is linked to a database and the database connection is active, the<help:link Id="65956" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"> <span class="T1">AutoPilot List Box</span></help:link> will automatically appear after the list box is inserted in the document. This AutoPilot helps you create the list box.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a combo box.</help:help-text> A combo box is a single-line list box with a drop-down list from which users choose an option. You can assign the "read-only" property to the combo box so that users cannot enter other entries than those found in the list, but this does not have to be the case. If the form is bound to a database and the database connection is active, the helpful <help:link Id="65956" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"><span class="T1">Combo Box AutoPilot</span></help:link> will automatically appear after you insert the combo box in the document.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a button displayed as an image.</help:help-text> Aside from the graphic representation, an image button has the same properties as a "normal" button.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a graphic control.</help:help-text> The control only adopts images from a database. In the Form View, if you double click such a field, the <span class="T1">Insert Graphics</span> dialog appears. This dialog enables you to insert the image.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Images from a database can be displayed in a form and new graphics can be inserted in the database (as long as the graphic control is not write-protected). The control must refer to a database field of the image type. Therefore, enter the data field into the Properties control on the <span class="T1">Data</span> tab page.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a button that enables a file selection.</help:help-text></p>
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<p class="Head2"><help:help-id value="SID_FM_DATEFIELD" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="form functions; date fields" tag="kw66036_30" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="date fields; form functions" tag="kw66036_29" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="controls; date fields" tag="kw66036_28" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>Date Field</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a date field.</help:help-text> If the form is linked to a database, the date values can be adopted from the database.</p>
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<p class="Paragraph">If you assign the "Show" property to the date field, the user can open a calendar to select a date under the date field. This also applies to a date field within a table control field.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Date fields can be easily edited by the user with the cursor keys (UpArrow) and (DownArrow). Depending on the cursor position, the day, month, or the year is increased or decreased step by step,</p>
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<p class="Paragraph"><help:link Id="66031" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Specific Remarks on Date Fields</help:link>.</p>
<p class="Head2"><help:help-id value="SID_FM_TIMEFIELD" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="form functions; time fields" tag="kw66036_27" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="time fields; form functions" tag="kw66036_26" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/><help:key-word value="controls; time fields" tag="kw66036_25" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>Time Field</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a time field.</help:help-text> If the form is linked to a database, the time values for the form can be adopted from the database.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Time fields can be easily edited by the user with the cursor keys (UpArrow) and (DownArrow). Depending on the cursor position, the hours, minutes, or the seconds are increased or decreased step by step.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Use this icon to create a numerical field.</help:help-text> If the form is linked to a database, the numerical values in the form can be adopted from the database.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a formatted field.</help:help-text> That is, a text box where you can define how the inputs and outputs are formatted and which limiting values apply.</p>
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<p class="Paragraph">A formatted field has <help:link Id="65939" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">special control properties</help:link> (choose <span class="T1">Format - Control</span>).</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a currency field.</help:help-text> If the form is linked to a database, the currency field contents for in the form can be adopted from the database.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Click this icon to create a masked field.</help:help-text> Masked fields consist of an <help:key-word value="input mask" tag="kw66036_1" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>input mask and a <help:key-word value="character mask" tag="kw66036_2" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help"/>character mask. The input mask determines which user data can be entered. The character mask determines the state of the masked field when loading the form.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Use this icon to create a control field for a database table.</help:help-text> If you create a new table control field, the <help:link Id="65918" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Tablecontrol AutoPilot: Field Selection</help:link> dialog will automatically appear. This dialog will help you create the control field.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">The table control field is a tabular view of a database form. It is used for the overview and fast data acquisition. If you link the form with a database, the table control field can display the data of the data source. You can work with this control field the same way as with the edit mask of a normal database form: Enter, delete, edit data, etc.</p>
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<p class="Paragraph"><help:link Id="65924" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">Special Information about Control Fields</help:link>.</p>
<p class="Paragraph">Click this icon to activate or deactivate the Selection mode. In this mode, you can select the controls in a form in order to edit them.</p>
<p class="Paragraph"><help:help-text value="visible" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">If this button is active, the first form object is focused on when the document is opened.</help:help-text> If the button is inactive, the focus is on the text when the document is opened. The <help:link Id="66039" Eid="tabordner" xmlns:help="http://openoffice.org/2000/help">activate order</help:link> defined determines the focal point.</p>
