creating a form to gather information

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

I apologize at the beginning that I am a newbie and not sure if Access is
even where I need to be. We want to take a laptop to tradeshows and have
participants fill in a form (name, add, phone, email) on the computer rather
than paper forms that then need to be hand entered into a database. I can
easily create a table with the fields I want, but how do I make the form and
then have it available? i.e. a participant enters their data, hits enter and
a new form appears for the next participant? Again, I apologize if I'm in the
wrong place.
 
There's a command button wizard that will do that for you. Assuming that you
haven't turned the control wizards off (they're on by default) just add a
button to your form, choose 'Record Operations' in the 'Categories' list,
accept the default selection ('Add New Record') in the 'Actions' list, and
click the Finish button.

The wizards don't create the best code in the world, but it will get you
started.
 
Thanks so much. That will definitely get me started. Can't guarantee that I
won't be back with more ???'s though!
 
There are a couple of quick and easy ways to create a basic form. Easiest of
all is probably Autoform. Select a table in the database window (the box
listing tables, queries, etc. that appears when you start Access) and click
the Autoform icon on the toolbar (it looks like a piece of paper or something
with a kind of lightning bolt running through it). Hover the mouse over it
to be sure you have the right icon, then click it. Click View > Design,
which opens the form in design view. The boxes and so forth are called
controls. Delete any controls you don't need, and arrange the others by
dragging them around with the mouse (or select them, hold down the Ctrl key,
and use the arrow keys to nudge them around. The table holds the
information; the form is just a sort of portal to the table fields. Deleting
a control does not affect the table field.
If you right click on a control and click Properties (or double click on a
control that is not selected) you will see the property sheet. At the top of
the All tab is a place for the control name. Give it a descriptive name such
as txtFirstName (for the text box containing first name).
Highlight the magic wand icon in the toolbox, click the command button icon,
and click the form to open the command button wizard. I think you can use it
to create a button to go to the next record.
You would do well to purchase a basic Access book or take an introductory
one-day course. There are lots of explanations for this sort of thing that
go into more useful detail than I can include here.
 
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