The benefit of well designed forms

- [Instructor] One of the things that I really like about Access is that it's not just a place to store data. Yes, we do talk a lot about data, and records, and relationships, and queries, but where Access truly shines is in your ability to create a fully customized application that's uniquely tailored to your specific data needs. Where this really becomes apparent is when we start digging into forms. Forms are all about user interface. They provide the mechanisms that translate what you want to get done to the inner workings of the database. In fact, in a well designed Access database, there may never be a need to actually even see a data table or a query, or a relationships screen. Those are all background processes that organize input and output, and once they're set up properly, should just work with little maintenance. Forms handle all of the grunt work of capturing user intent and moving it through the system. They help guide users through all of the available options. I'm currently looking at the database that we're going to have created by the end of this course. The main starting point for this system is this main menu form. Here I have buttons to open up various other forms in the database or run reports that help me explore my data. For instance, I can view the employee directory, which pulls employee data out of the employee table and shows me an image of the employee as well as their details. I can scroll through all of our employees and see that information there, and when I'm done, I have a button to take me back to the main menu. I can then take a look at our product analysis form. This shows me a form with all of the information about our products here at the top. And I can cycle through to different products. Down below, I have subforms that expand information about the orders that were made for that specific product. I can also see reviews if we have any for the product. I also have a chart for the monthly sales. So I can see the performance of the product sales month over month. When I've done reviewing this information, I can return to the main menu. Now let's take a look at some reports, I have a couple of them listed here. The customer lifetime sales report shows me a list of each customer, and I can see which state that they were in. It also shows me the total money that they've spent with the company. This is organized on a standard piece of paper. So I can print it out or send it to a PDF file for further review. When I'm done looking at the report, I can close print preview, and it takes me right back to the main menu. I also have a configurable report. Here I can choose a year and a month that I want to see. Let's take a look at the profit summary for May, 2021. I'll choose those options, and press the view profit summary button, and it opens up a customized report exactly tailored to that specific month. Again, when I'm done with this report, I can close print preview, and it takes me back to the main menu. So as an end user that has never even seen this database before, we can accomplish some specific tasks without digging into the navigation pane. Also notice that the navigation pane isn't even on the screen. For most users, there should be little need to go in there. If the database is well designed, everything that you need will be available through these types of forms and interfaces. As the database administrator though, if you need to, you can always press the F11 shortcut key on your keyboard in order to access the navigation pane when you need it. This will allow you to take a deep dive into all of the various tables, queries, forms, and reports inside of your database file. Now, if we think about Microsoft Word as a tool for creating documents, then we can say that Access is a tool for creating more specific tools. I know that that's kind of an abstract idea, so let me explain what I mean. You can use Access and have a fully operational database with nothing more than a few tables and queries. And in fact, that's where a lot of other database platforms end. But when you start layering forms and reports on top of that data, you start creating something more. It becomes a custom application where Access, the program represented by the ribbon and the navigation pane really doesn't matter anymore. Access is kind of a unique program, and then it provides a framework for creating a customized application inside of it. Unlike say Microsoft Word, where you need to be somewhat familiar with the program in order to write a word document, Access provides an environment where a nervous user can get work done without having to know much at all about how Access works. And that's largely what creating a well designed form is all about. Your job is to create a system that makes moving around and interacting with the database easier and more streamlined so that someone, anyone really can open up the file and feel comfortable getting data into and information out of the database. Your job as the database designer is to create these kinds of interactive forms.