LibreOffice-Suite-Base/C2/Build-a-complex-form-with-form-controls/English-timed
From Script | Spoken-Tutorial
| Visual Cues | Narration |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base. |
| 00:04 | In this tutorial on Complex Forms, we will learn about |
| 00:08 | * Building a complex form
|
| 00:13 | In the previous tutorial, we learnt how to enter data using forms and how to modify a form using LibreOffice Base. |
| 00:22 | In this tutorial, let us learn about building a complex form. |
| 00:28 | Let us first invoke the LibreOffice Base program, if it's not already open |
| 00:44 | And open our Library database. |
| 00:47 | If Base is already open, then we can open the Library database from here by clicking Open under File menu |
| 00:57 | or by clicking Recent Documents under File menu |
| 01:03 | Let us design a new form that will help us track the books, issued to the Library members. |
| 01:12 | Let us see how we can design this form as shown in the screen image. |
| 01:18 | Let us go to the LibreOffice Base main window, and click on the Forms icon in the Database list on the left panel |
| 01:29 | And then click on 'Use Wizard to create form'. |
| 01:34 | This opens the Forms window and the now familiar wizard on top. |
| 01:41 | We have already gone through this wizard in detail, so we will proceed quickly with it now. |
| 01:49 | In Step 1, Field Selection, let us choose 'Tables:BooksIssued' from the drop down box beneath the label that says Tables or queries. |
| 02:02 | Let us move all the fields from the left to the right, by using the double arrow button. <pause> |
| 02:10 | Let's click on Next. |
| 02:12 | This is Step 2, but we will skip this step for now, and click on the next button at the bottom. |
| 02:20 | We are in step 5 now. Let us choose the first arrangement 'Columnar – Labels Left' and click on the Next button. |
| 02:30 | Let us skip Step 6 also by clicking on the Next button |
| 02:36 | Step 7, let us choose Ice blue, and
click on the Next button |
| 02:42 | In step 8, let's name the form as 'Books Issued to Members' <pause> |
| 02:53 | and click on the 'Modify the form' option. |
| 02:57 | Next click on the Finish button. |
| 03:00 | Notice that the wizard popup window is gone and we are looking at the form design window. |
| 03:07 | Here, we are going to make some modifications before we use the form for data entry. |
| 03:15 | Let us first Ungroup all the elements we see on the form. |
| 03:22 | We are doing this so that we can edit the properties of individual elements on the form easily. |
| 03:31 | To ungroup all the form elements in one shot, we need to first select all the form elements. |
| 03:40 | To do this, let us first open up the Form Design toolbar |
| 03:46 | by clicking on the View menu at the top, then click on Toolbars and then click on Form Design. |
| 03:56 | In this toolbar, let us click once on the mouse pointer icon which is the first and the leftmost icon. |
| 04:05 | We will call this as the Select icon from now on. |
| 04:11 | This is used for selecting form elements by clicking and dragging. |
| 04:18 | Now, let us click on the top left of the form and drag it diagonally to the bottom right. |
| 04:26 | You will now see a rectangle with alternating black and white lines. |
| 04:32 | Let’s make sure, all the form elements are inside this rectangle. |
| 04:38 | We will use this way repeatedly, to select groups of form elements. |
| 04:46 | Now we see that all these elements are encased in small green boxes. |
| 04:53 | Now whatever action we do here, will affect all the elements inside this area, uniformly. |
| 05:02 | Now let us move the mouse pointer on any label here, |
| 05:08 | Notice that the mouse pointer looks like a plus sign over labels and text boxes. |
| 05:18 | So let us right click over a label and click on Group at the bottom and click on 'Ungroup'. |
| 05:28 | Let us now type a heading that will sit above all the form elements. |
| 05:35 | For this, let us push down the form elements and then centre them within the form. |
| 05:43 | So first let us press the down arrow key about seven times. |
| 05:50 | Then press the right arrow key about 14 times. |
| 05:57 | Notice that this moves all the selected form elements towards the right and the centre of the form. |
| 06:07 | Now let us bring the cursor to where we need to type the heading. |
| 06:14 | To do this, let us click on the top left of the form window area, |
| 06:21 | And press the enter key twice, |
| 06:26 | Then press the tab key four times and then type 'Form to track Books Issued to Members'. |
| 06:38 | Now as we click on the individual labels and text boxes, we see that these elements are selected or highlighted individually. |
| 06:52 | Okay, next, let us rename the BookId and MemberId labels on the form. |
| 07:00 | We can do this, by double clicking on BookId label, which opens up the now familiar Properties window. |
| 07:12 | Against label, type in Book Title. |
| 07:18 | Now let us click on the MemberId label on the form. |
| 07:25 | Notice that the Properties window has refreshed and again here, we will type in 'Member Name' against Label. |
| 07:34 | As we press the tab key, we will notice the new label changes on the form. |
| 07:43 | Next, let us change the font sizes of these elements now. |
| 07:49 | Again let us select all the elements. |
| 07:54 | We will use the click, drag and drop method. |
| 07:59 | And now, we will double click on any label which in turn will open the Properties window. |
| 08:08 | Let us scroll down to find Font and click on the square button on its right. |
| 08:18 | In the new popup window, let us click on Bold and click on size 8, |
| 08:26 | And let us click on the Ok button. |
| 08:29 | Notice that the font has changed to Bold and size 8 across the form now. |
| 08:38 | Next, let us move all the form elements to the centre of the window. |
| 08:45 | For this, we will select all the elements. |
| 08:49 | Now let us click and drag on any label, toward the centre of the form design window. |
| 09:00 | Now let us, save the form. |
| 09:03 | And close this window.
To see how our form looks like now. |
| 09:10 | let us go to the Base main window, and double click on the 'Books Issued to Members' form on the right panel. |
| 09:20 | This opens the form which is ready for data entry use. |
| 09:26 | Now, in this form, we see some sample data. |
| 09:31 | And against book title and member name, we see some numbers, |
| 09:37 | Which are really primary numbers in the Books and Members table, but not very friendly values. |
| 09:46 | Which would you like to see real names and book titles. |
| 09:50 | And, how do we do this? |
| 09:53 | One way is to add a form control called List box. |
| 09:59 | We will see how to add and use a list box and other form controls in the next tutorial. |
| 10:08 | This brings us to the end of this tutorial on Complex Forms in LibreOffice Base |
| 10:13 | To summarize, we learned about:
|
| 10:20 | 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. |
| 10:40 | This Script has been contributed by Priya Suresh, DesiCrew Solutions.
And this is Soundharya, DesiCrew Solutions, signing off. Thanks for joining |
