Access 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Chapter 3. Creating Forms to Add and Display Data

• Form Basics

• Creating Autoforms

• Creating Forms with the Form Wizard

• Modifying the Form Design

• Creating Forms in Design View

THERE’S A REASON ALL DOCTOR’S OFFICES, schools, businesses, and governments use forms to collect information from you: Forms work. They ensure all the important information is obtained. And though you may resent having to fill them out, forms do make life easier.

In Access, forms don’t just handle data collection. Onscreen forms can also provide help so people know what to type even if they’re not familiar with your database. In addition, forms can error-check information as it’s entered, preventing incorrect information from getting into the database. Furthermore, you can use Access forms to display information onscreen.

Tip

You can use forms to print data, too, but it’s not always easy to make an onscreen form look good on paper. Reports (Chapter 8) are usually better used for printing.

Access gives you three ways to create forms:

• Autoforms are the fastest and easiest way to create a form but give you very few design choices. You get what you get, though very often what you get is enough.

• The Form Wizard takes you through a series of screens that ask you questions about your form design. At the end, the wizard creates a form based on your answers. The Form Wizard gives you more choices than the Autoforms method and is much easier to use than creating a form from scratch in the Design window.

• The Design window requires ...