As a starting step in suppressing them as much as possible, I turn them off in Access Options: So, I continue to keep them at arm’s length.
#MICROSOFT ACCESS DATABASE DESIGN HOW TO#
I’ve never mastered how to prevent them intruding into my designs unexpectedly. I keep returning to study the utilisation of themes. I used to, but I soon learnt that to fit with my view of what a form should look like and perform, I spent more time adjusting what the wizard had created than it took me to design the form from scratch. Please regard what I say critically if you’re to find a way of working that’s perfectly suited to you. I've changed my approach over the years, but now am settled on one that works for me. This article charts a personal way of doing things, based on my experience of using using Access since Microsoft made it available to the world. General Approach to Form Design in Access You’ll need to know which version of Access to use and possibly whether it’s 32 or 64 bit. On the other hand, I don’t want a form made of closely spaced controls dressed in small fonts in an attempt to cram in information, but which then sends users cross-eyed trying to read it. I avoid Access forms requiring the user to scroll horizontally or vertically.
#MICROSOFT ACCESS DATABASE DESIGN FULL#
To design forms that make full use of the screen area available, you’ll need to know the resolutions of the monitors on which the database app will be displayed. Don’t satisfy the users, and you won’t satisfy the boss. If the users don’t like your work, then you’re stuffed. If you haven’t discussed with the users how they want to use the database, and you’ve gone ahead on your own with your marvellous creation, then the project is at risk. It’s up to you not to force on them a seemingly illogical way of working. If you try to persuade database users that they need to input the address first, they'll think you’re mad: in the databases they've ever used, you start with a person’s, or organisation’s, name, and then you proceed to input the address. In my data models, you input an address and then you can assign it to a person or organisation. Personal preferences of authoritative decision makers that must be reflected. There are “who-does-what-and-when-under-whose-authority” rules, for example. Your database needs to sympathetic to these, and operate accordingly. There are things that are unusual, even unique, about how a business operates. Here are some considerations when re-setting your frame of mind from RDBMS engineer to that of a user-interface designer: Business Culture The back end is what the developer considers it should be but the front end must be conceived from the viewpoint of the users. Just as considerable thought goes into data modelling the back-end tables, the same must go into planning the front-end UI objects. Tables for project management database that’s lead me make a start on this article. It’s the feedback from people who’ve been following the Tips on creating a contacts database, Guidance for developers on how to design and creation forms as successful user interfaces for Microsoft Access databases.ĭevelopers who are confident in their ability to appreciate the subtleties of RDBMS data modelling, and to engineer the tables and table relationships for the back end of their systems, have contacted me about their lack of experience in designing forms for Access databases. (e) How to Design and Create Forms in Microsoft ® Access