[jrh]

I am trying to figure out what the purpose of the forms tab is and whether or not I truly need it for my database. What is the concensus or professional opinion out there?

Is the forms tab just another fancy way to show your tables?

This leads me to another question...does everyone generate reports that are basically mirror images of their tables? In other words, where you select a table and all the fields so that you have a 'fancy' print out.

[Talismanic]

While forms are a fancy way to show the table, they are also a way for you to control what type of information is entered into the table, how the information is entered and forms give you the ability to maniplulate the information being entered with code. It will also alow you to protect the data that is stored in the tables from the user. You, as the developer have total control and the user gets an easy to use interface that will help them along the way.

In a nutshell the forms purpose it to make sure the data that gets entered into a table is accurate and protected.

I am no professional but I would never recomend giving users direct access to the data in your tables. By the way, you are not limited to using the forms supplied by Access. If you skilled in Visual Basic or HTML you can use either as a front end to your tables.

[nczman]

No. Very few of my reports are showing what is in the tables. Most of mine use queries and VB code to do things such as counts, sums, averages. We also use the report to look at how much time we spend on the support hotline, how many surveys that we get back and what their ratings are, and such to calculate what our bonus will be.

We also export the data into excel spreadsheets for graphs of what type of calls are coming in.

[jrh]

Thanks for the info and quick reply.

Another question, does each form created have to have all the fields from a specified table? My thought is no but I want to be sure.

[Talismanic]

It is not required but I think it is good practice not to have optional fields in a table. At least at the form level. I could understand if a field would be left blank on a form and remain blank in the table but why have a field in the table that could be left off the form. You may as well eliminate the field all together.

Another thing you may consider is using a different table for the optional data/fields then you could create a relationship between the two tables and call the second table to the form when you need it and hide it when you don't.

[jrh]

Thanks Talismanic!

I did create some forms and my original thinking was that the "not required" fields were not necessary in the form. However, after reading your response, I like your idea better. I think it is a good idea to have a secondary table that links to the primary table -- thanks for the tip!

BTW...I can't say that I am a well versed VB person. The only code I know well is C, but I have also learned a great deal about html in the last nine months working on web designs.

Love this site...everyone is so quick w/ their responses and good info too!

[Anne Troy]

I never include the autonumber field on my forms.

Just my two cents while I'm in here marking this one solved!