Hello
Form
I will try to explain the idea of forms in OpenOffice.org. Understanding the idea of form is realy important when you want work with OOo.
You have also to understand that the word "form" does have two meanings:
- a) the writer document
b) what you see in the form navigator
When you open a form as document then it is not open in edit mode but only input mode for data. You can open it in edit mode by right clicking and then choose for edit.
When you have open the form in this way you can easy switch between edit mode and not edit mode.
Toolbars
OOo-base does have four toolbars.
- a) Form Navigation Bar
b) Form Controls
c) Form Design
d) More Controls
When you not have study these controls don't start with base. You can only make or change forms when you can handle this.
Some tools you have to understand and can be activate with button on these toolbars.
Form Navigator
Howto open the form navigator and make it visible
On one of the tool bars there is a buttom with this you can make it visible. In the form navigator you see all elements of your form. The form navigator is an other tool than the navigator
Add Field
Is easy in combination with the form navigator for adding control to your form.
Wizard
You can switch on the wizard for listboxes, comboboxes gridcontrols and some more.
Howto make a new mainform and subforms
The form navigator acts like the explorer in windows. When you want make a new form select the place where you want have it. Right click and select new. You can not choose for a subform or main form. A main form is all what is the first level subforms are below. This means also you can have more then one mainform in your form document.
An important difference between a mainform and a subform is that a subform has always master and slave fields on the property tabpage. With this master and slave fields you can select data in the subform.
listbox and Combobox
When you have litle experience then activate the wizard for making a listbox.
Gridcontrols
A grid is a control who contain other control but it is no form.
You can add listboxes and comboxes to a grid control but the wizard is not working. The properties from the control inside a table control can differ a little of the same control outside a table control in a form.
I make a listbox somewhere in the form and copy some values to the listbox in the table control, and delete the listbox.
I think the name is table control and for programming we use more gridcontrol. Don't ask why.
link
http://www.baseprogramming.com/resources.html