I am currently working on a database, in 3rd normal form, which is for candidates who apply for a job with the law firm that I work for. My issue is with good form design.
I have a main form. Then I have 3 pages on a tab control ( 4 if the type of candidate validates that is is to be shown) Each page has a subform. The subforms can be either single or continuous, I think I am still deciding what I want to lock down this entry form to make entry easy.
my main menu - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/newmenu.jpg
The main form is just for name and email and candidate type. If the candidate type is one of a few types a page becomes visible for specific info information if candidate is attorney type - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentrywith4thpage.jpg ,
otherwise, there are just 3 pages. 1 is for addresses. my old address tab and subform - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentryformaddtabshows.jpg An applicant can have multiple addresses (home, work, school etc), another is for phone numbers. my old phone tab and subform - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/phonetab.jpg An applicant can have multiple phone numbers.
The last page is for the applications for that candidate. application tab with application and acitivity subform -
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/applicationandactivitytab.jpg
A candidate could apply more than once, so they could have more than one application. This will get tricky because the application form has a subform, for the activities relevant to that application. This is like a logical history. Activity - interview scheduled, interview held, offer extended, rejection letter sent, etc.
Anyway, I am looking for advice on many issues. How to best control the subforms, how to make it so that when the user is tabbing it goes from the last field on one subform to the first field on the next subform, and more. My hestitation is that I think I need to make sure that there aren't more address, phone numbers, applications or activities needed to be added at that time. My next hesitation is that I don't want to be stopping the user with messages every 5 seconds.
I have been playing around and consolidated the phone and address, and taken all maintenance buttons off of the entry form. I think this is a better direction, but I am still not sure how to make this look and work in a solid manner.
maintenance menu for maintenance types - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/maintenancemenu.jpg
my new consolidated tab for address and phone - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/contactinfo.jpg
Here is the issue. If you look at the address and phone subforms (consolidated onto one tab) , you see that there are fields for 1 record, and an add button.
I am trying to figure out how to format and set up my subforms, so that the tabbing can go straight through from the first field (salutation) to the last field on this form, which is Followup/followup notes, on the activity subform.
The thing is that I need to account for the possibility that a user would need to enter in multiple addresses, phone numbers, applications, or activities.
I do not know how to make this appear on the form in a way that will make sense to the end user.
The old phone tab (http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/phonetab.jpg )
showed a way of using a continuous form so that when a first phone is added a second record opens up. I think I kind of liked that.
The old address tab (
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentryformaddtabshows.jpg )
shows the form with navigation tab. I didn't like this because when a user tabs from the zip field, the record they are on disappears. It looks that way to the end user. The navigation buttons show that the form has moved to a second record, but the end user might get confused by that setup.
Here is my challenge for applications and activities.
The tab right now ( http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/applicationandactivitytab.jpg ) does not account for a second application. I put the previous and next buttons there, but stopped because I was unsure. I could put a new record button there too, since it is single form cycle current record.
The activities has the navigation buttons and cycles all records ( based on application id, which ties to candidate id) but again this has the same problem as address.
Any suggestions would be wonderful. I would really love to see some screen shots as well.
If you would like to see table relationships and detail I have those as well:
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/tablerelationships.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/tabledefinitions.html
I have a main form. Then I have 3 pages on a tab control ( 4 if the type of candidate validates that is is to be shown) Each page has a subform. The subforms can be either single or continuous, I think I am still deciding what I want to lock down this entry form to make entry easy.
my main menu - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/newmenu.jpg
The main form is just for name and email and candidate type. If the candidate type is one of a few types a page becomes visible for specific info information if candidate is attorney type - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentrywith4thpage.jpg ,
otherwise, there are just 3 pages. 1 is for addresses. my old address tab and subform - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentryformaddtabshows.jpg An applicant can have multiple addresses (home, work, school etc), another is for phone numbers. my old phone tab and subform - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/phonetab.jpg An applicant can have multiple phone numbers.
The last page is for the applications for that candidate. application tab with application and acitivity subform -
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/applicationandactivitytab.jpg
A candidate could apply more than once, so they could have more than one application. This will get tricky because the application form has a subform, for the activities relevant to that application. This is like a logical history. Activity - interview scheduled, interview held, offer extended, rejection letter sent, etc.
Anyway, I am looking for advice on many issues. How to best control the subforms, how to make it so that when the user is tabbing it goes from the last field on one subform to the first field on the next subform, and more. My hestitation is that I think I need to make sure that there aren't more address, phone numbers, applications or activities needed to be added at that time. My next hesitation is that I don't want to be stopping the user with messages every 5 seconds.
I have been playing around and consolidated the phone and address, and taken all maintenance buttons off of the entry form. I think this is a better direction, but I am still not sure how to make this look and work in a solid manner.
maintenance menu for maintenance types - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/maintenancemenu.jpg
my new consolidated tab for address and phone - http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/contactinfo.jpg
Here is the issue. If you look at the address and phone subforms (consolidated onto one tab) , you see that there are fields for 1 record, and an add button.
I am trying to figure out how to format and set up my subforms, so that the tabbing can go straight through from the first field (salutation) to the last field on this form, which is Followup/followup notes, on the activity subform.
The thing is that I need to account for the possibility that a user would need to enter in multiple addresses, phone numbers, applications, or activities.
I do not know how to make this appear on the form in a way that will make sense to the end user.
The old phone tab (http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/phonetab.jpg )
showed a way of using a continuous form so that when a first phone is added a second record opens up. I think I kind of liked that.
The old address tab (
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/mainentryformaddtabshows.jpg )
shows the form with navigation tab. I didn't like this because when a user tabs from the zip field, the record they are on disappears. It looks that way to the end user. The navigation buttons show that the form has moved to a second record, but the end user might get confused by that setup.
Here is my challenge for applications and activities.
The tab right now ( http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/applicationandactivitytab.jpg ) does not account for a second application. I put the previous and next buttons there, but stopped because I was unsure. I could put a new record button there too, since it is single form cycle current record.
The activities has the navigation buttons and cycles all records ( based on application id, which ties to candidate id) but again this has the same problem as address.
Any suggestions would be wonderful. I would really love to see some screen shots as well.
If you would like to see table relationships and detail I have those as well:
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/images/tablerelationships.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/misscrf/tabledefinitions.html
