absolute beginner

I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / & nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

Forms display records. You have one form and it can display many records at
one time or one record at a time.

Tables hold records

Forms display one (or more) records from the table. If you wish to display a
different record, you move off the currently selected record to the next record.

John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2009
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County

ant! wrote:
I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / & nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

Thank you for the response, but it did not really address my issue.

I am creating just one table and each row is a person's name which will
relate to a record displayed on a form. 1 record, 1 form.

My question is:

1. How do I link each row with the relevant form?
2. As I have 7000 forms to create I would rather use a "save as" function as
I am pasting in the data, but I cannot seem to find that tool.

Thank You

"John Spencer MVP" wrote:

Forms display records. You have one form and it can display many records at
one time or one record at a time.

Tables hold records

Forms display one (or more) records from the table. If you wish to display a
different record, you move off the currently selected record to the next record.

John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2009
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County

ant! wrote:
I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / & nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

Ant!,

You would not use one form = one record. Are you going to have 7,000
buttons to open these forms? No. What you want is one form (bound to your
table (Table is the record source for the form) and a combo box at the type
of the form to look up the names.

Tables just hold the data. Each record should not/does not get it's own
form. I suppose you could write 7,000 queries with filters by each persons
name and bind to 7,000 forms but then what happens when a new person is
added? Do you need to create a new form? (And, truely, this is not the way
anyone would approach this project.)

I believe you may have misunderstood how a table and form relate to each
other. Here are some excellent tutorials that ight help you...

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/acc...resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm

"ant!" wrote in message
...
Thank you for the response, but it did not really address my issue.

I am creating just one table and each row is a person's name which will
relate to a record displayed on a form. 1 record, 1 form.

My question is:

1. How do I link each row with the relevant form?
2. As I have 7000 forms to create I would rather use a "save as" function
as
I am pasting in the data, but I cannot seem to find that tool.

Thank You

"John Spencer MVP" wrote:

Forms display records. You have one form and it can display many records
at
one time or one record at a time.

Tables hold records

Forms display one (or more) records from the table. If you wish to
display a
different record, you move off the currently selected record to the next
record.

John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2009
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County

ant! wrote:
I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / &
nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the
list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the
said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form
as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

Gina,

thanks for your response.
imagine you are in a doctor's surgery.
he has a long list of patients.
You say my name is Gina; so he clicks on Gina and then a page with your
details come up.
That is what I am trying to make.
In my head it all seems so simple....

Thanks

"Gina Whipp" wrote:

Ant!,

You would not use one form = one record. Are you going to have 7,000
buttons to open these forms? No. What you want is one form (bound to your
table (Table is the record source for the form) and a combo box at the type
of the form to look up the names.

Tables just hold the data. Each record should not/does not get it's own
form. I suppose you could write 7,000 queries with filters by each persons
name and bind to 7,000 forms but then what happens when a new person is
added? Do you need to create a new form? (And, truely, this is not the way
anyone would approach this project.)

I believe you may have misunderstood how a table and form relate to each
other. Here are some excellent tutorials that ight help you...

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/acc...resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm

"ant!" wrote in message
...
Thank you for the response, but it did not really address my issue.

I am creating just one table and each row is a person's name which will
relate to a record displayed on a form. 1 record, 1 form.

My question is:

1. How do I link each row with the relevant form?
2. As I have 7000 forms to create I would rather use a "save as" function
as
I am pasting in the data, but I cannot seem to find that tool.

Thank You

"John Spencer MVP" wrote:

Forms display records. You have one form and it can display many records
at
one time or one record at a time.

Tables hold records

Forms display one (or more) records from the table. If you wish to
display a
different record, you move off the currently selected record to the next
record.

John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2009
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County

ant! wrote:
I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / &
nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the
list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the
said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form
as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

ant! wrote:
Gina,

thanks for your response.
imagine you are in a doctor's surgery.
he has a long list of patients.
You say my name is Gina; so he clicks on Gina and then a page with your
details come up.
That is what I am trying to make.
In my head it all seems so simple....

Thanks


All the advice you've had so far is correct, and well-targeted, but I
think you've now given us a clear description of what you need. Here's
what I'd suggest:

First (absolutely the most important and least obvious stage), make sure
you have your table(s) right. Most databases have several related
tables, and you may find you need to go down this route as you enhance
your database, but for now there is just one table. That means we can
even base our form directly on the table, instead of on a query which
joins multiple tables together. (These considerations may not be
relevant now, but they are too important not to mention!)

You need a form, and for now you'll create a form which will show ALL
the records (1 patient = 1 record) in your database. You move from one
record to the next using the controls ("VCR controls") at the bottom of
the form - Access adds these controls automatically.

The easiest way to create a form is to use the Wizard. In my experience
the best way to do this is to just try it loads of times, varying the
options, and deleting the resulting forms until you have one you like.
If you want, you can change into Form Design View and nudge things about
a bit until you have exactly what you want.

But what about selecting an individual patient to view? That's a
"search" facility. What you want is to type in a name, or some part of
a name, and have Access display only those patients which match. You
suggested "Gina" as an example. What if this patient (Gina Whipp) had
said "Whipp"? Or what if the name was John? In the first case you see
you need to match any part of the name (from either Given Name or Family
Name) and in the second case you're likely to get quite a few matches.

One solution to the first problem is to create a query, and base the
form on the query, not the table. The query "concatenates" the First
Name and Last name using an expression like this:
FullName:=[FirstName]&" "&[LastName]
.... so now you have a single field which will contain any part of the name.

Create such a query, and use the Form Wizard to create a form, and that
field (which I've called FullName) will appear on your form.

Now you have to search. I'd suggest you start with the built-in
"filter" facility in Access. No coding - it just works. Find and click
the "filter-by-form" button on the toolbar. This brings up a version of
your form into which you can enter search text into one or more of the
fields. You should use wildcards ('*' means any characters and '?'
means any single character) if you want to match entries which are
longer than what you type. For example, if you wanted to match "Gina
Whipp" in the FullName field, you could enter:
*na w*
- note the wildcards before and after. Alternatively you could enter:
Gin*
- which would match any records starting with the string "Gin".

To complete the search, you have to click the "Filter" button, which
looks like a funnel. Then you'll see your form displaying the first of
the matching records. You can click the "Next Record" button in the VCR
controls until you see the one you want. If too many records have been
matched, start again and enter a more specific search term.

Why don't you try that and see if it does the job for you. You could
have this working in less than an hour - depending on how long it takes
to create a form you're happy with.

Yes, it's possible to customise this process, and include a search
button on your form. You'd create an unbound text box, and a button.
In the OnClick event of the button you'd use VBA to set the form's
"filter" property to be the contents of the text box, and then turn the
filter on. Same effect. And yes, you can refine all this in lots of
different ways so that a form pops up. There are many possibilities,
and if you study this very comprehensive demonstration site:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-62.html
.... you'll see how most of them work.

Access can seem very hard for an absolute beginner but it's worth
sticking with it, as it all starts to make sense with time. Lean how to
divide your data into related tables and use the Relationship window to
"tell" Access about the relationships. Use Queries to "join" your
tables to access related information. Base Forms and Reports on your
Queries. Use Wizards at every stage until you're confident enough to
construct a table, query, form or report from scratch. Access will help
you if you go about things the right way. And so will we.

HTH

Phil

These folks are all experts and right, and have given you the real path
forward. I also expect that you're standing still right now due to the above
being overwhelming.

Here's a 5 minute baby step: Run the form wizard, use your table as the data
sources, put all of it's fields into the form, choose "columnar" format.

Now, to "bring up" a patient, click on the "last name" box, then click on
the binoculars in the toolbar, and in the ensuing dialog box, type in the
person's last name and hit "enter"

On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 23:51:01 -0700, ant! wrote:

Gina,

thanks for your response.
imagine you are in a doctor's surgery.
he has a long list of patients.
You say my name is Gina; so he clicks on Gina and then a page with your
details come up.
That is what I am trying to make.
In my head it all seems so simple....

I think that it's mainly confusion about the jargon.

You're thinking that the "page with your details" is a new Form.

It isn't! There's only ONE form; you can think of that form as a movable
window, viewing data in the table.

You can use the Combo Box wizard on the toolbar to create a Combo Box on the
form, the purpose of which is to "slide the window" to Gina's information.
Create a form based on the table, showing the desired details. Then use the
Combo Box wizard taking the option "use this combo to find a record".

Post back with some details about the structure of your table, and what it is
that you want to look up, if you're having trouble with it.
--

John W. Vinson [MVP]

thank you so much for the advice.
what is clear is that unlike other MS applications Access is another type of
animal and is not that easy to work through without training.

i think my target should be to prepare the table - the reports, and then get
someone to help me with all the funky stuff.

thanks again

"ant!" wrote:

I have created a table with 3 fields - last name / first name / & nationality.

I have, so far, made 1 form which relates to one of those names in the list
- giving further details on that individual.

What do I have to do to relate the relevant row in the table to the said form?

I wish to create a similar form for all the names so do I save the form as
the id number or as the Last name etc?

Thank You

ant!

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:56:11 -0700, ant!
wrote:

thank you so much for the advice.
what is clear is that unlike other MS applications Access is another type of
animal and is not that easy to work through without training.

Absolutely correct. It's got a much steeper learning curve than any other
Office app.

i think my target should be to prepare the table - the reports, and then get
someone to help me with all the funky stuff.

The table (or tables) and their relationships come first.

A Form to enter and edit data comes next - a very simple autoform may be
adequate, though you can certainly go further.

Queries to select, sort, and organize the data would be next.

Reports would come last.

You're off to a good start, and we'll be glad to help!
--

John W. Vinson [MVP]