[Solved] Data entry form - getting started

[cellist]

I'm a new user of OpenOffice Calc. I want to create a simple data entry form that will store data in a spreadsheet. Here's where I've gotten so far...

I opened a new spreadsheet. I don't remember exactly what I did to get the forms design toolbar to appear (maybe tools>customize>toobars?), but I have it now. I clicked Design On/Off and several of the toolbar icons became active. Clicked Forms Navigator>Forms>New and renamed the form to Data Entry.

What do I do next to begin defining fields and controls on the Data Entry form? Is it significant that some of the toolbar icons are not active -- control, position and size, anchor, alignment? All of the are checked in the visible buttons list.

TIA,

Phil

[Villeroy]

A data entry form to get started with: counter.odb
A slightly advanced one: calculate_form.odb
And another one with pictures: pictures.odb

[cellist]

Thanks for your reply, Villeroy.

Counter.odb seems to be what I'm looking for.

I believe this particular form uses the database features of OpenOffice. How can I design a similar form to use with the spreadsheet features. Are there tutorials or "cookbook" documentation to guide a beginning user in this area?

Thanks,

Phil

[Villeroy]

Yes, input forms are built on top of databases. The only important thing is having a database before you design an input form. Forms have nothing to do with spreadsheets unless you get in touch with that cheap plasic toy in Excel. Someone wrote this for Calc: http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... t/DataForm

[cellist]

Forms have nothing to do with spreadsheets unless you get in touch with that cheap plasic toy in Excel.

I may be mistaken but I believe you just called me a fool for using the data forms feature of Excel. I can see that OpenOffice is a fine product. I will certainly consider using OO where that is practical. But simple data forms in Excel have proven, for me, to be quite useful and since nearly everyone I share spreadsheets with uses Excel, I will probably NOT start using OO for data entry forms on a regular basis. In this specific case, the other person I will be using the data with does not have Excel (nor OO, for that matter), but will install OO since it is free.

Someone wrote this for Calc: http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... t/DataForm

This extension appears to be just what I need to keep playing with my cheap plastic toy in OO's playroom Apparently I'm not alone, as the extension page show some 78,000 downloads for the extension.

Thanks for your help,

Phil

[Villeroy]

If you know how to navigate and edit spreadsheet cells, Excel's entry form is almost useless. It makes absolutely no difference if you edit the cells directly or in the entry form. The document will be exactly the same regardless if you used that tool or not.
The entry form provides one single feature: It copies calculated fields (formulas) into new records.

I wrote a macro which provides the same feature and some more.
You can select any single cell in you list, hit Ctrl+Enter and the following will happen:
- A new row gets inserted into the currently used region around the cell, no matter how wide the list may be.
- All formulas are copied down from the next row above.
- All remaining empty cells in the new row are selected for editing.
A second macro deletes the rows around the currently used region around the selection.
[Calc, Python] expand/shrink list ranges
Download, create a python-directory in your profile's script-folder, extract the downloaded zip to the folder and assign 2 shortcuts.