Organizing a flow of forms for data input

[standenman]

I am creating a data entry "flow" so have a virtual assistant interview my new client and enter data we need. I use MS Access and I do this myself, just going from table to table. My data, of course, is organized into tables with a variety of relationships - one to many, many to many, etc. I am having trouble with the approach in organizing a flow of input forms for a contractor/virtual assistant to use. I know this is vague, but I am after organizing principals. Thanks.

 

[plog]

Let's use continents, countries, cities and languages as an example database.

My first screen I have a button where users can add continents and a drop down or continuous form to select an existing one to work with. If they click the Add button they go to the Continents form where they can add a new one, if they select an existing continent that same form loads with the selected continent->

The continents form shows only 1 continent at a time--the one selected in prior screen or the new one they are adding. At the bottom is a continuous form which shows all the countries in that continent--additionally there is a button where they can add a new country to this continent. If they click the add button they to the Countries form where they can add a new one, if they select an existing one that same form loads with the selected country->

The country form shows only 1 country at a time--the one selected in the prior screen or the new one they are adding. At the bottom is a tab control--one tab is a continous form with a drop down that lists the language spoken in that country. They can go to the bottom of that form and add a new one by selecting a langauge in the last new record--there is no further form for them to go for an existing langauge. On the other tab is a continous form that lists the cities. They can go to the bottom of that form and add a new one by typing the city name in if necessary--there is no further form them to go for an existing city.

Lastly is a Currency form to load the drop down on the Currency tab of the country tab. This lists all the currencies available to the database and allows you to add new ones. This is most often on an admin workflow since it won't be used as often as teh main workflow.

In short, you see the hierarchy--the table that is not ever part of the "many" in a relationship is where you start. Then you just travel down the relationship tree making a form to show one record and have continous form(s) at the bottom to show any tables in a many relationship. You then continue on down the branch in the same manner--form to show one record, continous form to show the many.

 

[MajP]

Maybe you have this organized on a tab control. You can have tab one visible and after completing the inputs on a tab the next tab becomes visible and focus moves to that tab. Each tab would likely be a sub form.
Just a guess without more details.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I am creating a data entry "flow" so have a virtual assistant interview my new client and enter data we need. I use MS Access and I do this myself, just going from table to table. My data, of course, is organized into tables with a variety of relationships - one to many, many to many, etc. I am having trouble with the approach in organizing a flow of input forms for a contractor/virtual assistant to use. I know this is vague, but I am after organizing principals. Thanks.

It is vague, true, but I understand the concept of logical data flow. In the U.S. Navy it was a way of life for contractors.

The solution to your problem requires you to stand back and imagine that you had to do this on paper using paper-based forms. To be blunt, IGNORE the tables. They are confusing you. You don't care what they contain. (You really don't - at this level.)

Look at what you would have to do with the current process that you are trying to streamline. What form comes first and what do you do with it? Then what form comes second, third, fourth - and what data manipulation is required after each form? Data manipulation might be simply copying some important number to the top of another form. It might be a computation, a total, an average, ... doesn't matter what it is. What matters is that you KNOW what has to be done for the process if you didn't have a computer.

Don't look at the data. Look at the real world process. You aren't implementing data. You are implementing a process.

 

[Isaac]

a few thoughts:

• Events/transactions are the most complex screens. here they select dropdowns of carefully controlled lists of options (IDs, existing relationships/entites, names, etc)
• Anything needing to be added to those lookup dropdowns, those should be on screens dedicated to that (I usually put a tiny blue hyperlink "Add" - which don't actually use a hyperlink object, just use a Label colored Blue with a single Space in the Hyperlink property, nifty trick!). It's either in the dropdown or you click Add to add it which is carefully ccontrolled on its own screen (I never use NotInList events, it just encourages bad adds)

It depends on what task they are going to be doing. Are they going to be adding entities or events/transactions? Yes, quite vague.