Using Data Forms to Add, Edit, or Delete Records
Data forms are like index cards: there is one data form for each record in the database, as shown in Figure 25.2. You may find it easier to flip through these data form "cards" and edit entries than to edit them as worksheet data. To edit your database using a data form, perform the following steps:
Open the Data menu and select Form. You will see a data form that contains the first record in the database (see Figure 25.2.)
Figure 25.2. The data form.
The number of the current record appears in the upper-right corner of the form. Flip to the form you want to edit by using the scroll bar, pressing the up or down arrow key, or clicking Find Prev or Find Next.
To edit an entry in a record, tab to the text box that contains the entry and type your correction.
To delete the current record, click Delete.
Repeat steps 2–4 to change as many records as needed.
Click the Close button when you're done using the data form.
Come Back!
You can restore field data to what it was before you changed it—provided you haven't changed to a different record. To do so, click the Restore button. After you move on to a different record, you'll just have to retype the field data.
You can also use the data form to add records to the database, as described here:
Click the New button.
Type an entry into each of the text boxes.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add additional records.
When you finish adding records, click Close.
Template Wizard
Use the Template Wizard to create a worksheet template into which you can enter some of the data that you later want to save in a database. For example, you could create a sales worksheet and then link it to a client database so you can save information on the items each client purchases. Just open the Data menu and select Template Wizard. (If you don't see this command, you need to install the Template Wizard add-in.) The Template Wizard walks you step by step through linking cells in the template to fields in a database.
In this lesson, you learned about database basics and how to create a database. In the next lesson, you will learn how to sort the database and find individual records.