Yes/No boxes in 2 rows

[Ligaya]

Hello there,

I am making a roster for 25 people. In my form, the start of the roster is 0700hours until 1900 hours (increments of 15 minutes each) so I have 48 check boxes, which are ticked when one is rostered on for that time.

I am getting crossed eyed looking across the screen at these 48 tick boxes each for Monday through to Friday.

I have searched high and low and cannot find anything on how to have 24 check boxes (7am to 1pm) in one row and the other 2 dozen (for the next 6 hours until 7pm) on the next row, to be less painful on the eyes.

Can this be done?

I would be grateful for any ideas on how to start.

Thank you.

Regards,
Ligaya

 

[ColinEssex]

Have you got 336 fields? (24 x 7)

Col

 

[neileg]

I can't help but feel your design leaves a lot to be desired!

Never the less, if you use check box controls on your form you can position them where you like, unless you are using a continuous form or a datasheet.

 

[Ligaya]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.

I have 240 fields :48 for each work day - Monday to Friday (5 work days) and my form is continuous.

I do not have much experience in other forms.

Regards,
Ligaya

 

[namliam]

Just put them on the same row but below eachother...

Just a question tho... why make a table with 240 fields???
At the very least I would split it into 1 table with 48 and add a column per workday, that way splitting it...
You can also do it per dozen or 2 dozen, just add in a column to specify the day part...

 

[Rich]

You need to do some reading on normalisation/normalization, what you're building at the moment is a spreadsheet layout

 

[Ligaya]

Yes/No Boxes in 2 Rows

Many thanks, everyone for your input.

I was following instructions from my superior to do a roster with all the 15 minute intervals, hence the 240 check boxes. This is going to be used in calculatiing how many employees are required to work at certain periods.

I certainly will do some reading and trying out the suggestions made.

Thank you all. Your help is very much appreciated.

I'll call it a night now - it's pretty late here and I have an very early shift at work tomorrow.

Regards,
Ligaya

 

[Pat Hartman]

Relational databases work very differently from spreadsheets and you will find that once you get to the calculation part of this application that you are overwhelemed with complexity. The reason being that there are NO functions that work "accross" fields in the same row.

With the present design, you are far better off working in excel. If you want to take the leap to a relational database, tighten your seatbelt and get rid of all those columns. You table will end up being tall and skinny rather than short and fat because you will have only ONE time period per row.

You can still create reports that look like your spreadsheets but your data entry forms will be very different and trust me, your calculations will be a breeze compared to what you will need if you go with the gazillion columns approach.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i think irrespective of how this data is stored, its the presentation here thats tricky

if you want to see all the people, with all the time slots, then i think you HAVE to denormalise the data at some point to achieve this. The alternatives are to show these time slots vertically (continuous) for one guy at a time.

ie
a) if you store the data so that each person's has 48 time lsots in his record, then the data is being stored in a denormalised fashion
b) if you store the data so that the time slots are normalised (long and thin), then you have to denormalise these slots back into the fom required for presentation (which is not easy at all)

------
ligaya, in presentation terms you you could actually use two continuous forms ( one with first half, one with second half of time lsots), and put them on two tabbed sheets for am and pm - then your user decides whether he wants to see morning or asfternoon slots

but now it gets awkward to make sure that the current row in both sheets is the same (ie both John Smith), although i'm sure its doable - in the on current event, just update the other continuous form to the same record - would have to play around a bit to get this working.

 

[Pat Hartman]

The denormalization for presentation is easily accomplished with a crosstab. There is no easy solution for summing 48 columns.

 

[stopher]

I'd always go for normalisation.

Thinking out loud here, I'd list the slots tall/skinny as Pat says. Then have a subform that lists the people for a given time slot i.e. you click on a time slot and you can review/change the people for that slot in the subform. To enhance this I'd show a count of people per slot in the main form so a scheduler can easily access the full situation.

But I agree, for planning and visual purposes, a "spreadsheet" view is better suited. This can be done by creating an unbound form. Having an unbound form means you can design the form anyway you like while still storing your data in normalised structure. You can even move away from tick boxes and maybe have a nice grid where clicking on a cell in the grid changes it's colour. The downside is that it's far more challenging to set up. You'll need to use some code to load and save your data. But it could look quite slick though.

hth
Chris

 

[Ligaya]

Yes/No Boxes

Hello Pat, Gemma and Chris,

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

I am out of the office for a few days and will not be able to try out what you've all mentioned until I get back.

It sounds challenging and it would be very interesting to see the outcome and presentation.

Regards,
Ligaya