LibreOffice-Suite-Base/C2/Build-a-complex-form-with-form-controls/English
| Visual Cues | Narration |
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| Show Slide Number 1
Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base: Building a Complex form Learning Objectives 1. Building a complex form 2. Modifying the form |
Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base.
In this tutorial on Complex Forms, we will learn about
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| Show Slide Number 2
Modifying a form |
In the previous tutorial, we learnt how to enter data using forms and how to modify a form using LibreOffice Base.
In this tutorial, let us learn about building a complex form. |
| Open LibreOffice Base program from Windows Start-->All Programs-->LibreOffice Suite--> LibreOffice Base
Click on the 'open an existing database file' option. In the 'Recently Used' drop down box, Library should be visible, now click on the Finish button. |
Let us first invoke the LibreOffice Base program, if it is not already open<pause>
And open our Library database. If Base is already open, then we can open the Library database from here by clicking Open under File menu or by clicking Recent Documents under File menu |
| Show Slide Number 3
Show Image BookIssueFormDesignScript5.JPG |
Let us design a new form that will help us track the books, issued to the Library members.
Let us see how we can design this form as shown in the screen image. |
| In the Base main window, click on the Forms icon in the database list on the left panel.
Click on 'Use Wizard to create form' |
Let us go to the LibreOffice Base main window, and click on the Forms icon in the Database list on the left panel
And then click on 'Use Wizard to create form'. This opens the Forms window and the now familiar wizard on top. We have already gone through this wizard in detail, so we will proceed quickly with it now. |
| Choose 'Tables:BooksIssued' from the drop down box beneath the label that says Tables or queries.
Click on >> button |
In Step 1, Field Selection, let us choose 'Tables:BooksIssued' from the drop down box beneath the label that says Tables or queries.
Let us move all the fields from the left to the right, by using the double arrow button. <pause> Let's click on Next. |
| Click on Next button | This is Step 2, but we will skip this step for now, and click on the next button at the bottom. |
| Click on first icon.
Click on Next button |
We are in step 5 now. Let us choose the first arrangement 'Columnar – Labels Left' and click on the Next button. |
| Click on Next button | Let us skip Step 6 also by clicking on the Next button |
| Choose Ice blue
Click on Next button |
Step 7, let us choose Ice blue, and
click on the Next button |
| Type in 'Books Issued to Members',
click on 'Modify the form' option, click on Finish button |
In step 8, let's name the form as 'Books Issued to Members' <pause>
and click on the 'Modify the form' option. Next click on the Finish button. Notice that the wizard popup window is gone and we are looking at the form design window. Here, we are going to make some modifications before we use the form for data entry. Let us first Ungroup all the elements we see on the form. We are doing this so that we can edit the properties of individual elements on the form easily. |
| Click on View menu >> Toolbars>>Form Design.
Click on first icon that looks like mouse pointer. Click on top left of the form and drag and drop it diagonally to the bottom right, so that all the elements are inside the set of green boxes. Now move the mouse pointer on any label here, Notice that the mouse pointer looks like a plus sign over labels and text boxes. Right click over a label and click on Group toward the bottom and click on 'Ungroup'. Press down arrow key 7 times Press right arrow key 14 times Click on top left corner of the form Press enter key twice. Press Tab key 4 times. Type 'Form to track Books Issued to Members'. Click once outside the green boxes area. Click on each label or text box slowly. |
To ungroup all the form elements in one shot, we need to first select all the form elements.
To do this, let us first open up the Form Design toolbar by clicking on the View menu at the top, then click on Toolbars and then click on Form Design. In this toolbar, let us click once on the mouse pointer icon which is the first and leftmost icon. We will call this as Select icon from now on. This is used for selecting form elements by clicking and dragging. Now, let us click on the top left of the form and drag it diagonally to the bottom right. You will now see a rectangle with alternating black and white lines. Let’s make sure, all the form elements are inside this rectangle. We will use this way repeatedly, to select groups of form elements. Now we see that all these elements are encased in small green boxes. Now whatever action we do here, will affect all the elements inside this area, uniformly. Now let us move the mouse pointer on any label here, Notice that the mouse pointer looks like a plus sign over labels and text boxes. So let us right click over a label and click on Group at the bottom and click on 'Ungroup'. Let us now type a heading that will sit above all the form elements. For this, let us push down the form elements and then centre them within the form. So first let us press the down arrow key about seven times. Then press the right arrow key about 14 times. Notice that this moves all the selected form elements toward the right and centre of the form. Now let us bring the cursor to where we need to type the heading. To do this, let us click on the top left of the form window area, And press the enter key twice, Then press the tab key four times and then type 'Form to track Books Issued to Members'. Now as we click on the individual labels and text boxes, we see that these elements are selected or highlighted individually. |
| Double click on BookId label, which opens up Properties window.
Against label, type in Book Title. Click on the Memberid label on the form. In the Properties window type in 'Member Name' against Label. Press tab key. Simply point mouse over Book Title and Member name. |
Okay, next, let us rename the BookId and MemberId labels on the form.
We can do this, by double clicking on BookId label, which opens up the now familiar Properties window. Against label, type in Book Title. Now let us click on the MemberId label on the form. Notice that the Properties window has refreshed and again here, we will type in 'Member Name' against Label. As we press the tab key, we will notice the new label changes on the form. |
| Click on the Select icon on the Form Design toolbar, then,
use the clicking, dragging and dropping diagonally across the form to select all elements. Double click on any label which opens the Properties window. Scroll down to find Font and click on the square button against it. In the new popup window, click on Bold and click on size 8 and Click on Ok button. Show cursor movement over labels and text boxes. |
Next, let us change the font sizes of these elements now.
Again let us select all the elements. We will use the click, drag and drop method. And now, we will double click on any label which in turn will open the Properties window.
In the new popup window, let us click on Bold and click on size 8, And let us click on the Ok button. Notice that the font is changed to Bold and size 8 across the form now. |
| Click on the Select icon on the Form Design toolbar, then, use the clicking, dragging and dropping diagonally across the form to select all elements.
Click and drag on any label, toward the centre of the form design window |
Next, let us move all the form elements to the centre of the window.
For this, we will select all the elements. Now let us click and drag on any label, toward the centre of the form design window. |
| Click on save icon beneath file menu.
Close the window. |
Let us now, save the form.
And close this window. To see how our form looks like now. |
| In the main window, double click on the form 'Books Issued to Members'
Point cursor over title and name |
let us go to the Base main window, and double click on the 'Books Issued to Members' form on the right panel.
This opens the form which is ready for data entry use. Now, in this form, we see some sample data. And against book title and member name, we see some numbers, Which are really primary keys in the Books and Members table, but not very friendly values. We would like to see real names and book titles. And, how do we do this? One way is to add a form control called List box. We will see how to add and use a list box and other form controls in the next tutorial. |
| Show Slide Number 5
Summary
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This brings us to the end of this tutorial on Complex Forms in LibreOffice Base
To summarize, we learned about:
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| Acknowledgement Slide | Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project, supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India. This project is co-ordinated by http://spoken-tutorial.org. More information on the same is available at the following link http://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-Intro. This script has been contributed by Priya Suresh, DesiCrew Solutions Pvt Ltd. Thanks for joining. |
