Form Controls: Option Buttons

Quick reference

• 00:04 In this section of the course, we're going take a deeper dive into forms.
• 00:09 And we're going to look at form controls, form themes, and also form navigation.
• 00:16 So, let's start out in this lesson by taking a look at some of the other form
• 00:20 controls that we haven't explored yet.
• 00:22 Now, I'm currently viewing the ticket maintenance form.
• 00:25 And it might be that I want to have some option buttons on here,
• 00:30 which allow me to specify if this call is related to hardware,
• 00:35 software or something else.
• 00:37 And for this we can use the option control.
• 00:40 So let's jump into design view and take a look at our controls up here.
• 00:45 Now when you want to add different options,
• 00:48 you need to add an option group first and then add the different options.
• 00:52 And the way that this works is that, for example, if I want to have
• 00:57 my first option as hardware that is going to equal option one.
• 01:01 Software is going to be option two and other is going to be option three.
• 01:07 So that is kind of how you need to think about this when you're creating option
• 01:11 buttons.
• 01:12 So the first thing I need to do, as always,
• 01:15 is we need to add another field into TBL ticket.
• 01:18 So let's close down ticket maintenance and click on yes and reopen TBL ticket.
• 01:24 Now we're going to jump into design view.
• 01:26 And we're going to add another field at the bottom here, and
• 01:30 I'm going to call mine category.
• 01:32 Now it's going to be hardware, software or other so
• 01:35 short text is going to be the correct data type.
• 01:38 And we're going to say category for this ticket.
• 01:43 Let's check our field properties.
• 01:46 Field size, let's take this down to 30.
• 01:50 Is it required?
• 01:51 Well yes, it is.
• 01:52 Are we going to allow zero length?
• 01:53 No, we're not.
• 01:55 Is it going to be indexed?
• 01:56 Well yes, I may want to search on the category.
• 02:00 So now if we jump into datasheet view and save the table,
• 02:04 we now have a new category at the end.
• 02:07 So I'm going to go through and assign a category to each of these tickets.
• 02:12 So now I have a category assigned to each of my tickets.
• 02:15 Now we need to add an area on the ticket maintenance form where we can specify
• 02:20 which category the ticket falls under.
• 02:22 So, let's close down to TBL ticket and reopen ticket maintenance.
• 02:29 We're going to jump into design view and
• 02:32 I'm going to add these option buttons in this space just here.
• 02:36 So the first thing we need to do here is add an option group to house
• 02:41 our option buttons.
• 02:43 And this is the control that we want just here option, group.
• 02:47 So let's drag this across.
• 02:51 And now I can define my label names.
• 02:54 So we want hardware,
• 03:00 Software, And other.
• 03:05 And click on next.
• 03:07 And at this point I can set which option I want to use as the default.
• 03:11 So I'm going to go with hardware.
• 03:13 Let's click on next.
• 03:14 And you can see here the values that it's assigned to each one.
• 03:18 So one, two and three.
• 03:19 And now I can choose where I want to store these values, so
• 03:23 I'm going to select the category field and click on Next.
• 03:27 I can then specify what type of controls I want to use in the option group.
• 03:32 Now I want to use option buttons and then I can use a style.
• 03:37 So I have a etched, flat, raised, shadowed, or sunken.
• 03:44 Now, I think I'm just going to go with etched and click on next.
• 03:49 Now I can choose a caption for my option group.
• 03:52 So I'm going to call this category and click on finish.
• 03:58 And now take a look at what I've got.
• 04:00 Now it's also worth noting that I've used the little wizard to walk through and
• 04:04 add those option buttons.
• 04:05 You could cancel on that wizard and
• 04:07 add the option buttons yourself by choosing the option Button Control.
• 04:12 So now I can move these into place.
• 04:15 So we want hardware first, then we want software.
• 04:18 And then we want other over here.
• 04:22 So, let's take a look at this in form view.
• 04:26 Well, take a look at that.
• 04:28 Now it still looks a little bit messy.
• 04:31 I'm probably going to want to reject the design around a bit and
• 04:34 just make this not quite as wide.
• 04:36 And there we go.
• 04:37 With a bit of reorganization that looks a lot better.
• 04:41 So if we jump back into design view, and select our option group,
• 04:46 we can go through and start renaming our labels.
• 04:50 Now I think you know how to do that.
• 04:51 So just to save a bit of time,
• 04:53 we're simply going to rename the one that we have selected.
• 04:56 So this is called category and
• 05:01 the label name is category
• 05:08 Label and I'm happy with the caption as category.
• 05:12 Now if we select the group again, we can see that the control source is
• 05:15 category because that's what we set up when we were going through that wizard.
• 05:20 Now if we jump into a form view, does this appear to be working?
• 05:25 Well, no because I know that I assigned the category of hardware to
• 05:30 Claire Smith in TBL ticket.
• 05:32 So why isn't this working?
• 05:35 Well, it's because when I added hardware, software and
• 05:39 other into TBL ticket, I should have been adding it's numeric equivalent.
• 05:44 So instead of hardware, a number one, instead of software,
• 05:47 a number two, instead of other, a number three.
• 05:50 So we need to go back to TBL ticket and replace these values.
• 05:55 So I'm going to go through and do that now.
• 05:57 So, there we go.
• 05:59 Let's close down table ticket and now take a look at the record.
• 06:03 Hardware is selected.
• 06:05 And if I scroll to the next record,
• 06:08 I should find that all of these have updated correctly.
• 06:12 So something to watch out for there.
• 06:14 Remember it has to be the numeric value as opposed to actually typing in
• 06:19 the category name.

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