Eliminating unwanted form data

[drisconsult]

I have just updated a School database originally written in dBASE II, then upgraded to Access 7 and now upgrade to Access 13. I have had to do this becuase of the new grading regulations, which are now 9 to U.
The problem I now have is that when a student choses their subjects for GCSE, the user of my program has to scroll through the entire when entering Mock results, and this just not good enough. I am loading a series of PDFs that when linked together will illustrate my problem. I have found it impossible to know what the upload limit for PDFs is, so I have no choice in using this method. All the necessary text is included in the PDFs.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I can't follow the logic of what you are doing. I don't know what a Mock exam is or why you would enter data for it. I don't know why you wouldn't use criteria to limit the data the user needs to move through.

If you are entering scores for an exam, you should be able to call up the specific exam and have a list of the students who took it and so need a grade. If you are assigning students to classes, you would start with a student form and an empty subform. On each row of the subform, you would use a combo to assign this student to the selected class.

 

[drisconsult]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is, you should not be responding to my problem. Are there any teachers out there who can respond to my problem.?
For your information, Mock exams are taken by GCSE students to ascertain their potential grades before taking the final GCSE exams. Did you not take Mocks yourself?
Terence

 

[Minty]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is, you should not be responding to my problem. Are there any teachers out there who can respond to my problem.?
For your information, Mock exams are taken by GCSE students to ascertain their potential grades before taking the final GCSE exams. Did you not take Mocks yourself?
Terence

@drisconsult It's unlikely she took mocks, as Pat is based in America.
@isladogs will be able to assist you better, as he has written a number of bespoke systems for the British education system.

 

[LarryE]

The only way anyone here can assist you, is if you first present a picture of what your table and relationship design looks like. Please take a screenshot of your Relationships window design. That will at least give anyone here a fighting chance to help you.

 

[CJ_London]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is, you should not be responding to my problem

So your problem is to do with mock exams? Nothing to do with databases or ms access. Glad we cleared that up. I know a lot about databases and ms access, not so much about mocks. Did them many years ago but would appear the rules have changed. Might be better if you go to a teachers forum.

we are all volunteers here and can choose to respond to questions or not. You might want to consider rephrasing your response to Pat.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

First, I don't care what a Mock exam is. You came here with an ACCESS problem, and that is what WE understand. If you are having issues in data entry, tell us IN WORDS what you believe to be the problem. Then tell us, again in WORDS, what you think should happen instead.

Second, we field questions here from every industry, every group, every profession, and we have a good rate of getting positive results. Do you HONESTLY expect us to understand everything from your first presentation on a topic coming down from out of the sky? We ask questions until we get an idea of what you are actually doing and then start making suggestions. Sometimes we get the idea from the first post. Sometimes we have to offer questions of clarification. But if you look through our list of problem threads, you will see that some of those problems have been pursued relentlessly through over 250 posts. Don't expect overnight results but also consider that we can be relentless when it is clear that it is necessary.

Finally, I don't want to belabor this point. I will say this as gently as possible, but you were very dismissive of one of our more capable members. For someone who is looking for help, a dismissive attitude isn't the way to start. I have to say I felt that your response to Pat was quite rude. If you went to a doctor for medical help, would you go to a medical specialist first, or would you ask your primary care physician to suggest a course of treatment that MIGHT involve a specialist?

 

[arnelgp]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is, you should not be responding to my problem.

i agree with this one.
For once, just hold your peace if you can.

 

[Gasman]

It would be the same for the real exams as well, would it not. I took GCE exams, yes that old , and I do not remember taking mock exams. We only got the one chance in those days.
Regardless the issue could be any category, where you need to limit the list. However if I start typing Geo in a combo, I would expect it to find geography?
Plus you could also see how the old dbase system handled it?
If you were paying for this advice, your flippancy could possibly be understood, you want value for your money, but you are not paying, but you are being paid for this system you are trying to create.

 

[drisconsult]

Did anybody view the PDFs that I sent? If they did, they would have a much better picture of what my problem is. However if you would like me leave the forum I will do so.
Terence

 

[CJ_London]

I took a look but not at all clear to me what the issue is. Seems to be one issue and takes 7 pdf's to illustrate it and I'm still none the wiser

The problem I now have is that when a student choses their subjects for GCSE, the user of my program has to scroll through the entire when entering Mock results, and this just not good enough.

the entire what? is the user the student or someone else? what does the student have to do with the user? Are they entering their own results?

You're developing a database, so provide relevant information. table structure, relationships, recordsource sql to forms, what filters do you have in place? etc.

And for posting, you can zip a file or upload images.

 

[Minty]

I have looked through them as well, and I'm not sure of the exact issue either.

I suspect it's something to do with having to scroll through each combo box to pick the correct subject, in the correct combo, because the data isn't being stored correctly - the table design is almost certainly not normalised, as it appears to have 14 fields for the possible subjects.

But I'm guessing here. The forms used appear to be very monolithic, where a subform arrangement would almost certainly make for a better user experience.

 

[LarryE]

You said "...the user of my program has to scroll through the entire when entering...". I'm going to just guess that you meant to type "...entire list of forms when entering...". Is that your problem? You have too many forms and you wish to consolidate some of the forms so the user doesn't have to open so many? Or maybe you want to automatically open the next needed form when any form is completed. That is fairly simple to do if that is what you want.

 

[Gasman]

I was thinking subjects?

 

[mike60smart]

Did anybody view the PDFs that I sent? If they did, they would have a much better picture of what my problem is. However if you would like me leave the forum I will do so.
Terence

Hi Terence
Can you upload a screenshot of your Table Relationships?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Did anybody view the PDFs that I sent? If they did, they would have a much better picture of what my problem is. However if you would like me leave the forum I will do so.
Terence

No, don't leave the forum. Just realize that if your problem is an Access problem, maybe we can help you despite having no experience with those exams. When I was a MUCH younger man, I went through the USA versions of various exams for middle school, high school, undergraduate studies, and graduate studies. How many exams would I have had to take to understand record-keeping issues?

And as it happens, I DID look at all seven PDFs in sequence but you didn't supply us with an explanation of what was wrong and/or what SHOULD have happened. Which means I wasn't able to take away anything solid from your illustrations. It wasn't clear what you would have done with what you showed us.

Let me give you what I hope is a constructive hint. When you believe something is wrong, you have to have SOME idea of what would be right. Otherwise, how would you know it was wrong? And therefore, when you are asking us for help, how would WE know what was wrong without at least some of those details? When asking for help in how to get from point A to point B, it wouldn't hurt to better describe BOTH points A & B because we might be able to devise a path between them. Which is, after all, what you want. Tell us what you WANT to do or WANT to have happen. Sometimes a picture isn't worth the RIGHT 1000 words.

 

[jdraw]

I think this is an example of where a Picture(or pictures) is not worth a 1,000 words!
I agree with the others--no supporting literature to help orient the reader/viewer.

Terence,
As a developer, you must be aware that clear communication is paramount when soliciting requirements.
We are volunteers willing to help, but we need some direction and guidance from you who is experiencing the problem. What exactly is required?

 

[CJ_London]

The pdf’s look like they are taken from a user manual

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is, you should not be responding to my problem

Your problem has nothing to do with a Mock GCSE. It has to do with form design and data entry. On which subjects, I AM the expert. I did bother to download and view ALL the pdf's and they gave me no indication of what your problem is. You said the user had to navigate through too many entries. I can't argue with that. That's why I asked why you were not using criteria. The pdf's showed a poorly defined interface. It was pretty and neat but that doesn't make it user friendly. This is the 18th post and we are no closer to being able to help you than we were when I made my first response asking for clarification.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

If you do not know what a Mock GCSE exam is

Most of the experts here are American, so you are probably shooting yourself in the foot!