July 29, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I have a main form with multiple subforms, and everything works fine from a technical standpoint, but all of the subforms are in datasheet view, which looks terrible design-wise. I know that I should be able to set the "Default View" property to continuous view or single view, but the "Default View" option doesn't even appear in these subforms' Properties windows.
I built each subform by using the subform/subreport tool, but when the subform wizard popped up, I closed out of it and manually defined the subform's source object in the Properties window. I think this is the issue, because if I use the subform wizard (which I don't want to do), the "Default View" option does appear in the Properties window and I can change it to continuous or single view.
Again, everything works the way it's supposed to (all the foreign keys line up, I can enter records the way the user will need to through this form), but as I'm designing this database to be idiot-proof, I want it to be visually easy to navigate, and the datasheet view is ugly and potentially confusing. Any ideas?
July 31, 2008 at 3:15 am
Hi,
It sounds like you are viewing the properties of the frame that holds a sub-form on a parent form rather than the form's own properties.
To be certain there is a problem make sure you open the form from the database objects window i.e. where you would go to to create a new form.
If the property is not available when you view a form in this way it sounds like a problem that i've not come across before.
If that's the case you could try the in-built Detect and Repair option under the help menu which may fix a corrupt installation as long as you have access to the installation files.
K.
August 1, 2008 at 4:13 am
The subform will also appear as a seperate report in the report window. You need to set the properties of that individual report object, and then it will appear correctly when it's also a subreport.
August 1, 2008 at 8:07 am
I must be doing something wrong, because my subforms don't appear in the database objects window at all. Again, they do appear if I use the subform wizard to create them, but I don't want to use the wizard! I'm new to Access, so I'm sure this is a product of bad design on my part--maybe someone can help me.
Here's my basic setup (bear in mind that there are numerous secondary tables):
tblPrimary-->PrimaryID (autonumber PK), PrimaryTitle, PrimaryLocation, PrimaryDate, etc.
tblSecondary-->SecondaryID (autonumber PK), SecondaryName
tblPrimarySecondary-->PrimaryID, SecondaryID
Basically, I have a primary table, all of whose fields appear on my main form. Then I have a number of secondary tables with many-to-many relationships with the primary table, so I have a junction table for each that consists of PrimaryID and SecondaryID. The form I'm trying to make is meant for the non-technical user, so I don't want the SecondaryID to display on the subform--just the SecondaryName. I did that by making the SecondaryID field in tblPrimarySecondary a lookup table whose row source is SELECT tblSecondary.SecondaryID, tblSecondary.SecondaryName FROM tblSecondary. I set the bound column as 1 and the column count as 2, and set the column widths as 0";1". Then when I created the subform within the main form, I closed out of the wizard and set the subform's source object as Table.tblPrimarySecondary, with Link Child Fields and Link Parent Fields set as PrimaryID.
This serves the purpose that I want it to serve--namely, in form view, the user can enter all of the information they need to on one form, and they don't need to know any codes or ID numbers. But when I manually set a subform's source object, the subform appears in design view as a plain white box rather than an editable form--I can't make any physical changes to it. And like I said above, the subform doesn't appear in the database objects window at all.
Does any of this make any sense to anyone? :unsure:
August 1, 2008 at 8:30 am
Make sure you don't have any hidden objects.
August 1, 2008 at 8:33 am
By the way, what you're saying makes sense, but I have often used a data sheet view in the subforms and just hidden the join column. If you're not hiding any objects, it would be very strange, but if you're not using the wizard, then you have to create the subform as a seperate form anyway so that you can add it. That subform will be set to data sheet view and simply hide the columns you don't want the user to see. Have you done that? I'm assuming you have.
Conversely, there is no reason to avoid using a real form if you want. I've used both ways and both have their places.
August 1, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Thanks, Ron--it looks like I'm going to have to resign myself to just hiding the join column. Being new to Access, as I said, as well as being somewhat of a doofus, I didn't realize that single form view only displays one record at a time, even if multiple records in the subform are associated with the main form. So basically, since each of my subforms can have 0-3 records associated with the main form, I have no choice but to use datasheet view anyway. *sigh* I guess it's time to learn VBA! 😛
August 1, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Some of my most rewarding professional days were with Access and VBA and even now sometimes I miss it. You might find you enjoy it. Good luck!
August 4, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I think you'll quickly discover that using any manner of recordset navigation using Access's built-in methodology will annoy the royal you know what out of you, so I would get going with VBA as soon as possible. I will NEVER use the basic record nav stuff for ANY form I ever create, because you have almost NO control over what happens. If you want control, you then have to do EVERYTHING, and that's the price. It's almost always worth it, because once you have a form with a command button for adding a new record or updating an existing one, and a command button to change modes (between adding and updating), along with a combo box to select a particular record with, you can re-use that entire form and it's code with just some re-naming of things in the code, in another database altogether and the total effort is significantly smaller on each database beyond your first. Enjoy!
Steve
(aka smunson)
:):):)
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
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