Modifying a Form - Single Form vs Continuous View

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About this lesson

Make modifications to the way the form looks and behaves by switching it to Single form view.

Quick reference

Modifying a Form

Delve deeper into form customization and modify key fields to change how the form behaves. 

When to use

Customize a form whenever you want to control the look, feel, and behavior of a form. 

Instructions

Form Properties

  • Right-click on the tab and select Design View.
  • Right-click on any field and select Form Properties from the menu. 
Single view vs Continuous
  • From the Property Sheet, on the Format tab, change the Default View from Continuous to Single Form. 
  • Right-click on the tab and select Form View.

Single Form shows the company fields in one field. Continuous view shows them in a long list. Single Form is much less wasteful of space. 

To navigate through the records, use the record selector icons at the bottom of the screen. New records can be added from here also.  

Fields added in this way can be edited and modified in the same way as when using Continuous Forms. 

Filtering records

Records can be filtered in Single Form view. 

  • From the Home tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter. 
  • Select 'Abacus' and 'Calypso' from the list. 
  • Click OK. 

Toggle the filter off by clicking the Filtered button at the bottom of the screen. 

Searching for records

  • Click in the search field in the records selector. 
  • Type 'Calypso' and press Enter. 

Enabling Datasheet View

When using Single Form view, Datasheet view is not enabled by default. We can turn this on if we want to allow users to edit records in Datasheet view. 

  • Right-click on the tab and select Design View. 
  • From the Property Sheet, toggle the Allow Datasheet View field to Yes.
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  • 00:00 In this lesson, we're going to take a look at how we can modify more form properties.
  • 00:09 Now, in the last lesson we started making some minor edits to this form.
  • 00:14 And one of the edits that we made was that we increased the font size of
  • 00:18 the companies to 18 points.
  • 00:21 Now the first thing I'm going to do here is just change that back to 11 because
  • 00:24 this is a little bit big.
  • 00:26 So we're going to to switch into Design View.
  • 00:29 We're going to to go to our Property Sheet, and remember we want to make sure
  • 00:34 that we're editing the form properties, and let's find our font size.
  • 00:40 And we want to make sure that we have the Company field selected.
  • 00:44 And then if we scroll down, this is the setting that we want to change back.
  • 00:49 So let's put that back to 11 points.
  • 00:52 Now, currently when we view this form we're viewing all of our company
  • 00:57 records in what we call continuous form view.
  • 01:01 What that means is that you can see all of the company records, one on each row.
  • 01:07 Now we're going to change this to something a bit different so
  • 01:09 you can see the difference here.
  • 01:11 Let's right-click and go into Design View.
  • 01:14 We want to make sure that we have the form selected.
  • 01:17 Ad where we have Default View notice it says Continuous Forms.
  • 01:21 So that is what we have currently set.
  • 01:23 Now if we click the drop-down and changes to Single Form,
  • 01:26 let's take a look at how that affects what we're seeing.
  • 01:31 So if I right-click and go back to Form View,
  • 01:34 we're now showing the company record in one field.
  • 01:39 And in order to access the other fields we can cycle through using our record
  • 01:43 selector at the bottom.
  • 01:45 So currently we're showing record 1 of 13.
  • 01:48 If I use the arrows it's going to move to the next company and the next one, so
  • 01:53 on and so forth.
  • 01:54 So this is a great way to save a little bit of space on a form but
  • 01:58 still have access to those records.
  • 02:00 So you need to think about these things when you're thinking about how to design
  • 02:05 your form.
  • 02:06 Now when you are viewing your companies, or whatever information it is,
  • 02:11 in this particular way you can still use things like filters and searches.
  • 02:16 So if I want to filter for specific records, for example,
  • 02:20 I can still click the Filter button at the top and maybe I just want to see
  • 02:25 the records for Abacus, Calypso, and CompuTech, click on OK.
  • 02:30 Notice now my record selector at the bottom, it says 1 of 3.
  • 02:34 So it's filtered out everything other than Abacus, Calypso, nd CompuTech.
  • 02:39 Also note that it says Filtered next to it.
  • 02:42 Now if I click on this Filter button it's going to unfilter that list and
  • 02:46 bring back to all of my records.
  • 02:49 I can also utilize the search down here to search for a specific company.
  • 02:54 So, for example, I've started to type in the word Calypso and
  • 02:56 it's jumped straight to that record.
  • 02:58 So you're not really limited in what you can do with your records when
  • 03:04 you're using single form view as opposed to continuous forms.
  • 03:09 Now another thing that happens when you switch to single form is if you
  • 03:13 right-click notice that we have a new view.
  • 03:16 We have Layout View, but we no longer have Datasheet View.
  • 03:21 So when you switch to single forms Datasheet View basically gets disabled.
  • 03:25 And Datasheet View in general is the view that most people tend to use when they're
  • 03:30 adding new records in.
  • 03:31 And you don't have to use Datasheet View.
  • 03:33 We've already seen that we can add new records using Form View, but
  • 03:37 some people do prefer to use Datasheet View.
  • 03:40 Now the good news is that you can re-enable the view.
  • 03:45 So once again, let's go back into Design View.
  • 03:48 And if we're taking a look at the form properties,
  • 03:51 just underneath here you can see it says allow for Form View.
  • 03:55 Yes, allow Datasheet View?
  • 03:58 No, so let's toggle that on by double-clicking to change it to Yes.
  • 04:03 Now if I right-click I have four different ways that I can view this form.
  • 04:08 And if we switch into Datasheet View,
  • 04:11 this is just another way that I can maintain this form.
  • 04:15 So I could add another company into the bottom,
  • 04:17 let's call it InfoTech, and there we go.
  • 04:20 If you're wondering again why this hasn't sorted, we need to refresh.
  • 04:24 So back to Home, Refresh, and it's going to move that new company into place.

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