Multi-Table Forms Access – Lesson 5

Introduction One table will be the “one” table Other table will be the “many” table Forms one-to-many relationships Create queries that use the added fields

Project – Multi-Table Forms Create forms that included multiple tables Create added fields along with existing fields Create new queries Provide the capability of scrolling through records and access attachments

Report and Form Design Guidelines When new fields are needed, determine the purpose of those fields to see if they need special data types. When a form is required, determine whether the form requires data from more than one table. Is all the data found in a single table or does it come from multiple related tables? If the form requires data from more than one table, determine the relationship between the tables. Identify one-to-many relationships

Report and Form Design Guidelines If the form requires data from more than one table, determine on which of the tables the form is to be based. Which table contains data that is the main focus of the form? Determine the fields from each table that need to be on the form. How exactly will the form be used?

Set-Up Determine whether an input mask is appropriate Should the data in the field be displayed in a special way Determine whether the Yes/No data type is appropriate Are the only possible field values Yes or No? Determine whether the Date data type is appropriate Does the field contain a date?

Set-Up Determine whether the Memo data type is appropriate Does the field contain text that is variable in length and that can potentially be very lengthy? Determine whether the OLE Object data types is appropriate Does the field contain objects created by other applications that support OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) as a server?

Set-Up Determine whether the Attachment data is appropriate. Will the field contain one or more attachments that were created in other application programs? Determine whether the Hyperlink data type is appropriate. Will the field contain links to other Office documents or to Web pages?

Adding Special Fields Input Mask – specifies how data is to be entered and how it will appear

To Change the Row and Column Size Field Selector – the bar containing the field name Record Selector – the small box at the beginning of each record

To Enter Data in Hyperlink Fields Right-click the Hyperlink field in which you wish to enter data to display a shortcut menu Click Hyperlink on the shortcut menu to display the Hyperlink submenu Click Edit Hyperlink on the Hyperlink submenu to display the Insert Hyperlink dialog box Type the desired Web address in the Address text box Click the OK button

Multi-Table Form Techniques One-to-Many Relationships – one table is the “one,” the other is the “many” table Determine on which of the tables the form is to be based Determine the main table the form is intended to view and/or update Determine how the additional table should fit into the form Determine the fields from each table to be included in the form Determine the fields from the main table that should be included on the form Determine the fields from the additional table that should be included on the form

Size Mode Size Mode – the portion of a picture that appears as well as the way it appears is determined Clip – Displays only the portion of the picture that will fit in the space allocated to it Stretch – Expands or shrinks the picture to fit the precise space allocated on the screen Zoom – Does the best job of fitting the picture to the allocated space without changing the look of the picture

To Change the Size Mode Click the control containing the picture, and then click the Property Sheet button on the Design tab to display the control’s property sheet Click the Size Mode property, and then click the Size Mode property box arrow Click Zoom and then close the property sheet by clicking its Close button

To Anchor Controls Select the control or controls that you want to anchor to the form Use the Anchor button arrow to display the different anchoring positions and select the desired position Change to overlapping windows To see the effect of anchoring, open your form and then resize the form by dragging the border of the form Change back to tabbed documents

Navigation in the Form To move from the last field to the main form to the first field in the subform, press the TAB key To move from the last field in the subform to the first field in the next records’s main form, press CTRL+TAB To switch from the main form to the subform using the mouse, click anywhere in the subform

To Create a Simple Form with a Datasheet Select the table that is the “one” part of the one-to- many relationship in the Navigation Pane Click Create on the Ribbon to display the Create tab Click the Form button on the Create tab to create the form

To Create a Form with a Datasheet in Layout View Click Create on the Ribbon to display the Create tab Click the Blank Form button on the Create tab to create a form in Layout view If a field list does not appear, click the Add Existing Fields button on the Format tab to display a field list Click Show All Tables to display the available tables Click the Expand indicator for the “one” table to display the fields in the table and then drag the fields to the desired position Click the Expand indicator for the “many” table and drag the first field for the datasheet onto the form to create the datasheet Click the datasheet to select it and then drag the remaining fields for the datasheet from the field list to the desired locations in the datasheet

To Create a Multi-Table Form Based on the “Many” Table Use the Form Wizard to create a form in which you first select fields from the “many” table and then select fields from the “one” table In Layout view, select each of the fields from the “one” table, click the Property Sheet button on the Design tab to display the property sheet, and then change the value for the Enabled property from Yes to No.