Form Layout Design Help

[rhubarb]

I am adding some functionality to an existing database. The database serves as a ticketing system. The primary field I will reference is the job address which is already existing in the database. So I'm thinking from my switchboard I have another button to open a form that provides a combo box to select one of the existing addresses. Once the existing job address is selected another form will come up listing the elevators in that building. So naturally an address can have more than one elevator. Once an elevator is selected I'd like to list the ~40+ fields of detail related to that particular elevator. This will not work on a single form as it looks too clunky. Is a split form with tabs the best way to do this? So, that way I have the top like a datasheet view and when the elevator is selected it will provide the numerous details in tabs below. Does that sound about right?



Thank you for any insight.

[ranman256]

Possible design 1:
Tbl of tADDR (job addresses)
Tbl of tELEV (elevators for each addr) with details.


I use list boxes and filters..They can filter the company in the list, then pick elevator,
then show details to the right...OR a button to OPEN a form for the details screen

[ItsMe]

... Is a split form with tabs the best way to do this?...

Rather than a split form, I would probably use a Main form subform arrangement or a Main form with Single Form view and a Form Header.

You can create some combos and place them in the Main Form or Form Header, respectively.

Cause the RecordSource or Filter property to be dependent on the combos.

Perhaps you can do some searches on Cascading Dependent Comboox to get more ideas.

[rpeare]

Is it the same 40 fields that apply to all elevators, or can each elevator have a subset of the 40 fields? If you want to display all 40 questions for every elevator I agree with itsme a split form isn't really a great option you could look into a tabbed form though, those are fairly easy to work with and you can fit multiple pages of information in a relatively small space (for instance if you have categories under the 40 questions you could put eac subcategory on a different tab). You are mixing split and tab in your terminology what I am proposing is NOT a datasheet/spreadsheet type view (which I think is what you're talking about being too clunky you can correct me if I'm wrong). You would physically have to add a tab control and then add fields from your questions to the tab control.

[rhubarb]

All great ideas! I'll play around with the list boxes/filters and main form/subform. I'd like to make it look as sleek as possible which seems challenging with so many fields for a user to punch data into. I think a combo box with job address then a corresponding list box with elevators might work with tabbed fields for grouping the elevator details. I also need to distinguish between the data entry function of a form and the reading of data function of a form. Sometimes these blend in form work and I need to design the form to do both efficiently. This break is also happening because the job address exists in a table already whereas the elevators and detail have not been entered yet.

@rpeare - Not sure I have your question right but it is the same 40 or so fields that each elevator will be assigned to uniquely identify it, e.g. feet per minute, capacity, etc.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

[rhubarb]

@ranman256: How could I create a tADDR (job addresses) table? Currently, the job addresses only exist in another table (TICKETS) and some job addresses have multiple tickets which creates duplicates in the job address column. I retrieve the job addresses from that table, using a select distinct statement to populate a dropdown box but I'm not sure this is the best way to do it. I'd much prefer having a job address table with unique job address but how can I build that off the existing tickets table? Say someone adds a ticket with a new address. How would my new job address table get updated?