Starting and Using the Form Design Wizard
The Form Design Wizard prompts you for all of the information needed to insert and configure the controls in a Form Design file. You can use this Wizard to insert and configure controls in a new or existing Form Design file.
1. Open or create the Form Design file. You can create or open this file in the same way as any other file. However, during creation, the Create Form - Select Table Type window opens so that you can select the table type for the form.
If Simplify file inputs is selected (default) under General in the Project properties, a window opens, indicating that the Project’s Form Set file has changed. For more information, see General Project Properties.
In response to this window, click Yes to update the System file immediately or No to postpone this update until the next time you open the System file.
In the Options window, > controls whether the Form Design Wizard or Form Designer starts when you create or open a Form Design file. When this checkbox is selected (default), the wizard starts. When it is cleared, the Form Designer starts. For more information, see Report and Form Designers User Options.
2. If the Form Design Wizard does not start, select > .
If the Form Design file contains controls, the Fields Selection page appears. Go to step 5. Otherwise, the Form Caption page appears, displaying the default name assigned to the tab.
3. For Form caption, specify the tab name to use. For example, if the form is to collect incident entry information for the FRACAS module, type Incident Entry. If you ever want to change the tab name later, you can do so in the Form Properties window.
4. Click Next. The Field Selection page appears.
5. Complete the Fields Selection page, referring to the following table for option descriptions.
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Option
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Description
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Table type
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The table in which the data field resides. The default is the table with which the Form Design file is associated. If inserting fields from foreign tables is permitted, other tables are available for selection. Fields inserted from foreign tables are display-only.
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Fields available
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Lists the fields that can still be inserted on the form.
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Fields selected
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Lists the fields that have already been selected for insertion on the form. You can use the standard Windows drag-and-drop technique to reorder the fields in the list. The first field in this list is the first field inserted (or appended) to the form, the second field in this list is the second field inserted (or appended) to the form, and so on.
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When clicked, the field selected in the Fields available list is moved to the Fields selected list. You can also double-click a field in the Fields available list to move it to the Fields selected list.
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When clicked, all fields in the Fields available list are moved to the Fields selected list.
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When clicked, the field selected in the Fields selected list is moved to the Fields available list.
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When clicked, all fields in the Fields selected list are moved to the Fields available list.
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6. When all fields to insert or add appear in the Fields selected list, click Next. The Prompts and Required Fields page appears.
7. Complete this page, referring to the following table for option descriptions.
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Option
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Description
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Data field
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The prompt or name of the data field. By default, this is the name entered in the User Prompt column in the Project’s Data Definition file. Although you can override the name entered in the User Prompt column by entering a new name here, this is not recommended. Only the names entered in the User Prompt column display on reports.
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Required field
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Indicates whether the control is for a required field.
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8. When finished, click Next. The Wizard Complete page appears.
9. Click Finish. The Form Design Wizard places the controls in the order specified and displays the form in the Form Designer.
For the rules that the wizard uses when inserting controls, see Insertion Behavior. If you insert any parent fields for dependent lists, the wizard places all dependent fields on the form. For more information, see Dependent Lists.
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As you step through the pages of the Form Design Wizard, you can click Finish on any page. When you click Finish, the wizard uses the default settings for all remaining pages to immediately generate the form. Because the fields to add to the form are not selected until you reach the Field Selection page, this is the earliest page on which you might want to click Finish to bypass subsequent wizard pages.
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To manually insert additional controls in the open Form Design file, you can use the Insert menu or the Form Design Controls toolbar. For more information, see Inserting and Positioning a Control. To insert additional data fields using the Form Design Wizard, select Tools Form Design Wizard. Alternatively, you can use the Data Fields Toolbar to insert data fields. For more information, see Data Fields Toolbar.
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In a Form Design file, you can insert fields for changing the items to which a record is tied. For example, you can insert System Tree Item and Configuration in a Form Design file for the FRACAS Incidents table and then use these fields to select the system tree item and configuration. Or, you can insert Incident in a Form Design file for the FRACAS Maintenance Logs table and then use it to select the incident.
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