Form Design Strategy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Crowhurst
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Steve Crowhurst

I have a database comprising of many fields and lookup
tables. Is it best practice to view data in one form and
perform data entry in another form? My strategy in the
first instance was to have one big query that I hoped
would serve for viewing and data-entry, this failed
because of query non-updata-ability. I then attempted to
construct the form by breaking the query down into sub-
forms, this is fine for viewing, but doesn't work for data-
entry. If anybody can throw some light on the above and
give me general guidance I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you all for taking the time and effort to read this.
If anybody knows of a website article that dicuss's these
concepts could they please post a link. Again, thank you
all.
 
Steve

If you describe the domain (subject area), folks might be able to offer more
meaningful suggestions. You've asked a "how" question, without describing
the "what" issues.
 
Hi Steve,

I think this is one of those questions where the answer begins with "Well .
.. . it depends".

If you really need to present your users with a search or list type form
that requires a non-updateable query then yes, you need two forms. One for
browsing, one (or more) for dataentry.

Every now and then you can get away with having a form that is based on a
query with two or more tables but in general, I've found it to be better to
create forms/subforms for each table. If your data is properly normalized
you should be able to accomplish this with a combination of forms with
linked subforms and combos (for lookup table data) that have links to the
forms for updating the lookup table.

Tell a little more about your application and data - that will help me know
which websites might help you.

For starters take a look at

http://www.mvps.org/access/

and also look at the References section.
 
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