Datasheet

16
Part I: Basic Training
Databases with user forms
When you’re planning your database, consider how the data will be entered:
✓ If you’ll be doing the data entry yourself, perhaps you’re comfortable
working in a spreadsheet-like environment (known in Access as Table
view), where the table is a big grid, you fill it in row by row, and each
row is a record.
Figure 1-1 shows a table in progress in Table view. You decide — is it
easy to use, or can you picture yourself forgetting to move down a row
and entering the wrong stuff in the wrong columns as you enter each
record?
✓ You may want to use a form (shown in Figure 1-2) — a specialized inter-
face for data entry, editing, and for viewing your database one record at
a time — if
• Someone else will be handling data entry.
• Typing row after row of data into a big grid seems mind-numbing.
Figure 1-1:
Table view
can be an
easy envi-
ronment for
data entry.
Or not.
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