[mso] Re: Word Forms...maybe Access instead? Colin

I'm here! I'm here!

(Sorry for not being around much...first, yeah, life is killing me lately!
Not to mention all this @#$% studying I'm doing...like learning Excel!<g> So
busy I'm lucky to get 4-5 hrs of sleep a night. By Friday...I'm usually
beat! I'm HOPING life will easy soon...I THINK I can see the end of the
tunnel<knock, knock, knock>.) 

But yes, the subject "word forms" does catch my attention! ;-)

If you're "collecting" data...a Word form is a nice/simple way to pass
around a document to folks to have them tab through and fill in the
appropriate info. However, you might also want to check out my Forms
articles on my web site (www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html#autoforms). In
particularly, note the Please Fill Out This Form series...and note # 5,
specifically! Why? Because this project has "Database Connectivity" written
all over it!

Yes, you can continue to collect data within the documents...but it would be
a perfect project for you to create an Access database with the same fields.
Then...you can link the fields in the document to the fields in the
database. Yes...there IS a learning curve. But, depending on your ability to
learn/write some VBA code/follow directions/ understand logic...it might not
be too difficult.

Then...when you have forms, you could add a button to the form (ActiveX
control) that, when clicked, passes the info from the form into the
database. This would give you a wonderful DB of data that you can use in
many ways...versus JUST a pile of info in a Word doc! That # 5 article shows
you JUST how to do this type of thing!

As for your specific Qs, Colin...I'm not quite sure what you mean about the
repeating table. I mean...I now what a repeating table would be...but if you
could explain this part out a bit further...maybe I can tell you how it
might be done. 

As for suppressing some areas of the form...if I understand this Q
correctly...you can bypass the added areas if they are not needed.

One of the things I teach in my Video VBA course
(www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html) is to have the user create an invoice.
Then we program it to ASK the user "Do you need to add more
info"...meaning...do they need to add another item in the next row of the
table? If they say yes, the cursor moves them down a row. If they say
no...it totals the table and jumps them to the fields beyond the table. 

You MIGHT be able to use this same methodology? Create a table with the max
rows...but to avoid from forcing the user to continually tab through them
all...they can just say NO when they've filled out enough. If the table has
20 rows and they only need to fill out two rows...this would save the user a
LOT of row tabbing!

There IS a better way to do this...by asking and then not only jumping to
the next row...but dynamically (on the fly...while the user is tabbing
through the form) add another row to the table and enter in the field. But
YES, this is MUCH more difficult code to write! That's why I suggest to my
beginners that they just go for a max table, like 20 rows...and ask the user
if they need to continue. This, at least saves tabbing and you only end up
with empty rows. Not a bad format for the coding needed...versus the "adding
rows" method. Sure, that's cooler, but much more work to code!

If that's not quite what you mean and you mean that you'd rather have users
skip areas that aren't needed...say, if they don't have kids...skip the
section on children...then yes, that can be done, too. In fact, that is also
something I mention in my free articles at the URL I gave you above. Sorry I
don't remember the exact article number...but it's in there Please fill out
this form series. 

There are also several other articles there that might provide you with
additional ideas???

Check out the articles...and also provide me with a little more info...and
maybe I can help.

And one other thing. NOT to take you away from Linda's group...cos' this
place is great...but if you need additional info on writing VBA code to help
automate your form a bit...know that I have a Word_VBA group that
specializes in helping folks who are trying to learn Word VBA...particularly
for form creation. There's a bunch of code and help in the site files an
200+ folks learning/helping...including several gurus. So feel free to join
that group if you decide to take your form to another level and need help
doing it. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Word_VBA/ for details.


Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Instructor
Microsoft MVP & MOS Expert Certified

Free MS Tutorials: www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tips & Tricks eBook: www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Learn VBA the easy way, thru video! www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html


-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Linda F. Johnson
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 9:49 PM
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Re: Word Forms...maybe Access instead? Colin

Hi Colin...I'm sure if Dian was around and reading mail, she could answer
this...Word Forms are her specialty (and not mine) but she doesn't seem to
be posting much in this group lately...but if it were me, I would use an
Access form for this instead of a Word form...is there a reason you have to
use Word? Are you familiar with Access?  It sure seems like this would be a
lot more functional if you used Access instead of Word.


Linda
Linda's Computer Stop
http://personal-computer-tutor.com
ABC Free Ezine ~ Free Ebooks and Tutorials *all outgoing mail scanned by
Norton AV.  If you got a bug that looks like it came from me, it did NOT!

-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Colin
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 8:23 AM
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Word Forms

I'm creating some forms for use with my family research.
 

Two main questions.

 

1) I have to collect information for each child of a marriage. There can be
zero to 15 or more children (for many 18th /19th century families). IS there
an easy way to have a table on the form which appears once and then repeats
as often as it is needed? 

 

2) As the form will be used for manual entry, for use on line and by
non-computer users, I decided to stick with a simple (huh I have approx 40
fields per person!!) form which I tab through as appropriate, then print for
use in a reference manual. To make it as visually attractive as possible, I
would like to suppress some of the sectors, if the field contains no data.
Is this easy.

 

I had a look at Linda's web site & Dian's Mousetrax site, but couldn't see
anything like this.

 

Any pointers to any tutorials/ existing VBA code that I can copy & amend
would be welcome.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Colin


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