Forms, subforms, and tab control

[larryo]

I am a new Access user, and am attempting to develop a Contacts Management
system for a non-profit. After struggling for about a month, I went on-line
and downloaded the Contacts Management template from the MS Access website,
which is great (why didn't I go there first?), but I can't use it as is. I
have two questions: one, am I better off attempting to modify that template
for my purposes, or should I start out from scratch and attempt to build mine
similar to that one? I looked at it pretty carefully, and there appear to be
some advanced features in that template which I am sure I would have
difficulty replicating. Second question: How do you establish tab controls
on forms? I know there is the icon in the tool bar for adding them in, but
it doesn't seem to work very well when being added to an existing form. Do
you have to start out by "Create a form in Design View" and add in the tabs
feature first before doing anything else? In the MS Contacts Management
template, they show three tabs, "General", "Calls", and "Additional
Information". Are they all subforms? In the place of "General", I would
call it "Clients", with other tabs labeled as "Adults", "Children",
"Finances", and "Contacts". I have gone on-line for help with this and
looked through three books on Access and have not been able to figure this
out. Any and all help will be appreciated.

 

[Carl Rapson]

I am a new Access user, and am attempting to develop a Contacts Management
system for a non-profit. After struggling for about a month, I went
on-line
and downloaded the Contacts Management template from the MS Access
website,
which is great (why didn't I go there first?), but I can't use it as is.
I
have two questions: one, am I better off attempting to modify that
template
for my purposes, or should I start out from scratch and attempt to build
mine
similar to that one? I looked at it pretty carefully, and there appear to
be
some advanced features in that template which I am sure I would have
difficulty replicating. Second question: How do you establish tab
controls
on forms? I know there is the icon in the tool bar for adding them in,
but
it doesn't seem to work very well when being added to an existing form.
Do
you have to start out by "Create a form in Design View" and add in the
tabs
feature first before doing anything else? In the MS Contacts Management
template, they show three tabs, "General", "Calls", and "Additional
Information". Are they all subforms? In the place of "General", I would
call it "Clients", with other tabs labeled as "Adults", "Children",
"Finances", and "Contacts". I have gone on-line for help with this and
looked through three books on Access and have not been able to figure this
out. Any and all help will be appreciated.

1. If it's pretty close to what you want, and unless there's something in
the template that you absolutely can't have, I would recommend you go ahead
and use the template. It will save you a lot of time in the long run. Of
course, you might learn more if you did it all yourself. Plus, you have the
newsgroups here to help you.

2. You can add a tab control to a form at any time. Just select the Tab
control in the Toolbar and "draw" it on the form. Once the tab control is
placed and sized, you can add controls by first selecting a tab page and
then adding controls to it, just like you'd add controls to a form. You can
also move existing controls to a tab page by cutting the control, selecting
the tab page, and then pasting. A tab page can contain individual controls
or subform controls. Change the caption on a tab page by selecting the page
and opening its Properties window to the Format tab. To add tab pages,
select the entire tab control (not an individual page), right-click to bring
up the context-sensitive menu, and select Insert Page. You can re-order the
pages by setting each page's Page Index property to the order you want
(starting with zero).

One thing to remember about tab controls is that you have to have a specific
tab page selected, or any controls you try to add will just drop on top of
the tab control itself and not into a particular page.

HTH,

Carl Rapson

 

[larryo]

Carl,
Thanks very much for your information and your prompt reply. I believe I
tried what you suggested about adding tabs, but without success. The problem
was that I wasn't able to include the original form in, as one of the tabs.
I'll try it again. At least now I know that I was on the right track. As
for adapting the Contacts Management template for my purposes, I'm still not
sure if I'll do that or if I will start from scratch. As you stated, I will
learn more if I do, and I certainly appreciate the availability of this forum.

 

[UpRider]

Larryo, about adding a tab control to an existing form....
If you draw the tab control on top of existing form controls, the tab
control will not 'contain' those controls.
Here's how to do it, but it's a little messy.
1. Before you add the tab control, drag all the controls on the form off to
one side so as to make room for the new tab control.
2. Draw the tab control in an empty space, not covering any existing
controls.
3. Cut a couple of controls.
4. Click in the middle of the tab control. If you don't do this first, you
will just paste the controls back where they were before.
5. With the tab control selected, paste the previously cut controls
(keyboard CTRL-V).
6. Drag the edges of your tab control to make it bigger, since you have more
room now.
7. Cut and paste some more. (DON'T FORGET to click on the tab contol first
before each paste).
8. Keep going until it's done. Readjust your sizes to your liking.
9. Now you can add more pages to the tab control and add contents to each.

As for using subforms on tabs, that's fine, especially if the form is
already created. You can also treat each tab as a separate form, just put
controls on the tab like it was a form.
To add a subform to a tab, create a new tab page, and click on it to select
it. Drag the subform from the database window to the tab page. Done.

Tab controls are a lot of fun, and they work well, if you treat them right.

Good luck
UpRider

I

 

[larryo]

UpRider,
Thanks for your post. Your information is very helpful. I now feel like I
can make some serious progress.