How to add a classic go-to combo box to your project's forms

Introduction

A classic go-to combo box makes record navigation in forms a breeze. A user doesn’t’ have to use the next, previous, last record and first record buttons to navigate through dozens or even hundreds of records stored in underlying tables. If you have watched my videos on my YouTube channel, then you’ll notice that almost every form in my projects has this nifty combo box.

To navigate to a record all that a user needs to is to locate the record in the drop-down list and the record will be loaded on the form. Nonetheless, the go-to combo box is not a complete replacement of the aforementioned buttons; in fact, having a combination of both makes the user’s experience even much better.

The process

At this stage, you must have a form which writes data into an underlying table. Such a table can be a student details table with the following fields: StudentAdmNo, FirstName, LastName and Form.

If you create a form using the Form Wizard based on this table, it should look like the one in the image below. (extra formatting covered in this blog post)

     i.)            Open your form in design view and head straight to the design tab and select the combo box.

     i.)            Place the combo box on an appropriate place on your form. Once you place it the wizard below will be displayed. Select the last option.

      i.)            Pick the fields you want to see in the drop down list and click next > finish. Your classic go-to combo box is now ready.

     i.)            Lastly rename the label next to the combo box and save your form.

How to design visually appealing forms in Golden Wall School Inventory System

How to design visually appealing forms and reports.

Forms and reports are the interface between your system and the user. The end user will not see tables, queries, SQL code or VBA code. For this reason, you need to have presentable forms and reports.

The first step is to make your report/form pop up. Below is my Golden Wall Students form when pop up is disabled. It is plain ugly and uninspiring

To make your form pop up, open it in design view, go to the property sheet > other> set pop to yes.

The next step is to remove the scroll bars from your form. In design view, go to the property sheet > format > scroll bars > set to neither.

Now that you have set up your scroll bars to neither, your form should be of a size that does not need resizing to view other items in it. Now set your form’s border style to thin by opening your form in design view > Property sheet > Border style.

You may also want to change the following for a clean form.

Finally, if you don’t want the end user to open another object while your form/report is open, go to property sheet > Other and set modal as yes. To access other objects, the user will have to close that form or report first. This is important when you have a log in screen.

That is how you create beautiful forms and reports that are easy on the eye.