[Solved] Adding a control to an existing form

[marcbelanger]

Hello,

I'm a teacher preparing a lesson plan to introduce my students to the Base component of OOo. I'm hoping there's a kind soul out there who'll be nice enough to help a database newbie.

I want to know how to add a control (the label and field) to an existing form. Here's the problem:

1. A form is created using the Design View with the existing fields in a table.

2. The student wants to add a new control and so adds a new field to the table.

3. Now the question is: How do you add the new control to the existing form? I'm hoping the response is not "Do the form over again"

Marc

[Villeroy]

A collection of database fields should not grow over time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

[kabing]

You don't have to do the form over again. Open the form in design view. Make sure the Form Design Toolbar is showing. You should be able to click on the type of form control you need and then draw it on the form.

kabing

[r4zoli]

Additional info:
If you made a Form with wizard, not all fields shown on Forms. Binary and image fields can be added only in design view.

[Villeroy]

I suspect they are trying to work with cross tables like ...
Personal_ID Week1 Week2 Week3 ...
... with a new column every week.

[marcbelanger]

Hi all,

Villeroy: you're quite correct. Databases should not grow fields as they are used. But what I'm talking about here is *before* the database has been put into use.

R4zoli: We are working with the Form Design Wizard as you suspected, but the fields are not binary or image. They are text.

Kabing: I guess I didn't explain myself clearly enough. The students are in Form Design. They have all the fields showing on the form. But they have added another field to the table or they deleted a field and want it back again. I was hoping that they could somehow get back to the list of available fields in the table and move that field on to the form design.

Here's where we are:

1. IN DESIGN FORM field 1 field 2 field 3

2. Oops, students realizes another field is needed and adds field 4 to the table.

3. How does field 4 get put on to the form?

Marc

[Villeroy]

menu:View>Toolbars>Form Design
Alternatively, the "Form Controls" toolbar has a button which opens the form design toolbar
Button #1 allows (multiple) selection and "lasso selection" by drawing a rectangle around elements.
Button #2 toggles design mode on/off to test the form without the need to reload the whole thing
Button #3 and #4 show the property box where you can set all properties of a selected form or control respectively
Button #5 shows the "Form Navigator" showing the hierarchy of forms, subforms and all their controls. It allows also for easier selection of single elements in a group (label grouped with box).
Button #6 is probably what you are looking for. A field list of all the fields in the underlying table or query. A double-click adds a preset pair of label + control in the middle of the form. Drag&Drop works as well. Just use the mouse or the arrow keys to move it to the desired position. The context-menu of a single element (use #5 or Ctrl+Click a form item) provides a submenu "Replace With" to convert a simple text box to something more specialized. ("replace with" crashes v3.0, fixed in 3.0.1)
Button #7 lets you specify the tab-order for the form selected in #5.
Button #8 has no effect on embedded forms (apparently. I may be wrong). When you create a form in an external document it takes care that the form is loaded in edit mode. Useful when you saved and closed unfinished forms.
Button #9 Saves one click. Activates the first form control after loading.
Button #10 and following are helpers for easier sizing and positioning of controls. They affect their nature as graphical elements rather than functional form controls.

[marcbelanger]

That's it! Wonderful. Thank you very much Villeroy - for the knowledge and the patience.

Marc