1. BUS1MIS Management Information Systems Semester 1, 2012 Access: Data Entry Forms Week 7 Lecture 2

3. In this lecture the key ideas are: Without complete and valid data input, the quality of business information and decision making will be poor. Input screens should be designed to ……. Be appealing to look at and use. Use minimum keystrokes. Also included will be: An overview of creating an input screen in Microsoft Access 2010

4. To illustrate the ideas of input screen design we will use the Order Form lecture example from last week ….. CJC’s Images Order Form Order #: 1927 Order Date: 12/5/09 Customer Name: Liam Customer Address: Brisbane Item # Item Name Qty Ordered 3720 Large Framed 3 2917 Small Unframed 6 1129 Small Framed 1

5. … and the database we designed to store the Order data. Customers Cust Name Cust Address LiamBrisbane KirstySydney Orders Order#Order Date Cust Name 192712/5/09Liam 192813/5/09Kirsty 192914/5/09Liam Items Item # Item Name 1129SFramed 1800LUFramed 2917SUFramed 3720LFramed Ordered Items Order # Item # Quantity 192737203 192729176 192711291 192811292 1928180015 192937201 ………………

6. People are not good at entering data accurately and completely. We can reduce the number of errors through … Setting data validation rules when we create our tables Effectively designing data input screens

7. Most DBMS packages allow rules to be set to ensure the validity of data entry. The Access example sets the Order date to a value in this century.

8. Setting data validation rules when we create our tables The example below shows the Validation text when an inappropriate Order Date is entered.

9. Effectively designing data entry screens A data entry screen normally contains labels and data entry areas Labels Data Entry Areas Problems Labels should not be the field names Data Entry areas should reflect the amount of data to be entered

10. Effectively designing data entry screens A more effective data entry screen would be …. Remembering that data capture is best if it requires a minimum of keystrokes by a person ….. ……. what further improvements could we make?

11. Default Values If we can predict a value that will be commonly entered we can include it in a field as a default value. For example, the Order date is likely to be today’s date.

12. Default Values The data entry form will look like ….. Today’s date

13. Using the mouse rather than keystrokes Combo Box Because our database is made up of related tables we can use combo boxes to select values rather than having to type them. Customer Name in the Orders table is a prime example Cust Name Cust Address LiamBrisbane KirstySydney Order # Order Date Cust Name 192712/5/09Liam 192813/5/09Kirsty 192914/5/09Liam Relationship

14. Combo Box Indicates a Combo Box

15. Combo Box List generated from Customer table

16. Radio Buttons Where the data in a field is of Yes/No type we can use Radio Buttons to reduce keystrokes. I will add a Yes/No field to the Orders table Note: I have used Text as the Data Type for the field.

17. Radio Buttons We can use the Options group Wizard in Access to create radio buttons for the data entry.

18. Radio Buttons In the Data Form view the radio buttons look like …. Note: In the Order Completed field, 1 is stored to represent Yes and 2 to represent No.