Editing in a subform within a report

[Malachi Constant]

Okay, I've definitely been trying to do some stuff that Access wasn't exactly engineered to do, but I'm pretty sure Access was meant to have subforms in reports. Yet for some reason, I can't edit the data in any of my subforms within a certain report.



It's complex, but the subforms are enabled, the forms within them are unbound (no outer-join issues) and enabled. The subforms are hidden and made visible based on user events in a subreport.

The funny thing is, I could swear I used these forms before. And now I can't type in them.

I'm at a complete loss and frustrated with the lack of specifics about using subforms in reports on the internet. Anybody have any ideas?

[hertfordkc]

Doesn't sound right, but it has been awhile since I did anything complicated with reports.
You have used forms to get values to insert into reports while the report is active?

[Malachi Constant]

I'm not sure that I did, actually, because I'm transitioning these from pop-up forms to subforms. So while I feel like I used the form at some point, I'm not sure I ever did.

Will subforms not accept entry when the report is active? If so, is there any way around this? As mentioned, it's not linked to the report's data (or any data for that matter).

Maybe I could embed the report within a form somehow, and then call the subforms from the form?

[hertfordkc]

A report may make successive trials at formatting to determine pagination. For that reason, I don't think putting an interactive form in a report is a good idea...if it can be done at all.
If you can post your DB, I'll try to take a look at an alternative to putting the forms in the reports. Perhaps you could get the data in forms in advance of opening the report, then have code in the report which references the forms???

[Malachi Constant]

Thanks for the offer, but posting the database isn't an option.

Basically the report is serving as the interface. This was itself a work-around for trying to get a view of all the steps of a process. Each step has a many-to-one relationship to the items that belong to that step. In a report I can sort and group (visually), whereas a form in continuous view can't have subforms. So I can't have the users interacting directly with forms because they don't get the full picture without switching back and forth between views or records.

Originally I worked around this by using the report and adding events that brought pop-up forms to edit data, but I got complaints about not being able to access the report when the pop-up form was up. On the other hand, I need to make the pop-up form stay on top, so I couldn't open it in a standard form view because accessing the report would cause the form to drop behind it.

Hence the attempt with putting hidden subforms into the report.

Any thoughts?

[hertfordkc]

reports, if they will work there at all. And I understand your dilemma with pop-up/modal forms and other controls.
Without fully understanding your problem, may I suggest that you hide (visible = no) selector controls on your forms and subforms as needed, and unhide(visible = Yes) them when needed (and rehide them). You will have to sort out the event procedures which will take care of the hiding, unhiding, and refresh/requery.
That might get you past things popping up and blocking access, but present the appearance of popping up.

[Malachi Constant]

Seeing the selector controls isn't the problem, it's keeping the form on top of the report while the report is the active object. If I open a form and then the user clicks on the report, the form will go behind the report. I need it to stay in front of the report.

Unless you're suggesting I use a form instead of a report, which isn't an option because it won't display more than one record at a time if there are subforms. The only way to accomplish what I'm doing with the reports would be to have a continuous form with subforms, which Access (at least Access 2007) doesn't allow. Maybe there's a workaround for this?

[hertfordkc]

that you can have a continuous form display on the main form and also have subforms. I now understand that you feel you must have a decision chain with the prior results on display.
I'll study my navel for a while.

[Malachi Constant]

It's not a continuous form displaying inside a subform, it's a subform displaying inside a continuous form, i.e., I am displaying multiple records, each of which displays a subform with the multiple related records inside it. So the main form would be a continuous form, and within that continuous form there would be several subforms that were also continuous.

[hertfordkc]

in the main form. However, might you achieve your goal by using the main form primarily as a frame for subforms, so that what you were proposing to put on the main form could be contained on a subform, and another subform contains a continuous form as well? You would probably have to use VBA to achieve the query relationship that you want.