Access Form Design & Programming home
page. Here we provide an overview of our form
programming tutorials and examples.
Our goal is to offer you information
needed to create user-friendly Access databases. At the same time we hope
that you will consider
our services for your next database project or you'll contract with us for
hourly
consulting
to help you with programming tasks on your current project.
Navigation links to the detailed examples can be found on the navigation menu on
the right side of the page. Below you will find excerpts from some of the
examples.
We have three sections of our website devoted to different
aspects of form design and programming:
Access form programming is the user's interface to the data and
database functions. User interface design and form layout and functionality are key to
successful database implementation.
Microsoft Access forms are easily setup with the form
wizard - until you want add functions and features to the form's operation and
layout.
Programming validation of fields, coordination of combo boxes, manual coordination of disconnected subforms, all provide a challenge to the casual
user or novice Access developer when developing a smooth user interface.
In this section of our website we cover Access form examples for common issues
found during form design, some of which you may not have seen before.
We don't use macros in any of our examples - all coding is
done using visual basic, either directly attached to the form or as function
and subroutine calls to visual basic modules.
Below is a list of our programming Access form examples.
Click the link to see the full example page:
Unbound
Form Examples
For comprehensive field validation and control. See how we perform
transaction processing and field validation with an Access unbound form.
Unbinding the form frees our programming code from some of the restrictions
imposed by Access.
Not In List Event
Combo box/lookup lists advanced VBA with form popup. There are many
examples of dropdown list and combobox notinlist event handling on our website.
However, there are occasions when you will require advanced methods to handle
lists that are not one-column dropdown lists or combo boxes.
In our example we have a bond trading data entry application and we want to be
able to add new customer records on-the-fly
Master/Detail Continuous
(parent/child) Access form/subform example with both forms continuous.
Ever tried to put a sub form into a master form and have both forms
continuous at the same time? Access won't let you right? See example coding
method for placing two continuous forms on the screen and have them
automatically coordinated.
Programming Subtotals
Form subtotals, totals & grand totals. Placing total fields and
subtotal fields at the bottom of a continuous form is an
intermediate-level form
programming tasks in MS Access. Grand totals appearing in the main form are a
bit more complicated. See how we implement these totals and grand totals
on a form.
Improve Form
Performance and Opening Speed
Form performance is an important component of creating a user friendly interface
to your programs. More than a a few seconds waiting time and the user will
become frustrated and everything goes downhill from that point on. We have
developed methods to increase form opening speed from minutes (worst case) down
to a seconds. This performance increase is most notable on linked tables
going across a network.
Don't miss our Access form design and
user interface design guidelines and recommendations. See what to do and
what not to do in terms of combinations of fonts, colors and layouts from which
to choose from. It is important to select a combination of features which will
give a simple and pleasing interface to the user. See below a complete
discussion on this topic at our
Form Design & User Interface Design
recommendations page.
For additional resources relating to Access
form performance improvement and programming as well as speeding up Access in
general visit
Microsoft's website.
