Can the Data Form be modified?

[Mike991]

I can move & resize the fields but cannot change the label names. I right click on the field & select Name from the drop down menu and enter a name but nothing changes, even after saving & closing.

I go to LibreOffice 7.2 Help > Working with Forms > Creating a New Form Manually. I figured that may provide some insight as to what I’m doing wrong.

I click on Create Form in Design View. It mentions using Form Controls but nothing about creating or adding labels & fields.

It says “Click the Forms icon to access all forms that were created from within the current database window.” I haven’t created any forms yet, but can’t find the Forms icon. I hovered the cursor over all the icons & none said Forms.

Bottom line is I’m stuck again.

[eeigor]

As I understand it, the wizard has built the form and the field labels correspond to their aliases in the qData data source. For some reason, these labels are not editable. And the set of property tabs is truncated. I also deal with this for the first time.
But if you delete all the fields and recreate them one at a time, adding a label to the field and linking the field to the label by name, then such labels are very editable.

[Villeroy]

I used the wizard to create the form and added some buttons to make it more looking like the Calc form.
Right-click the form and choose Ediit…
Now you can edit the structure of the form document. The form document is an ordinary Writer document with a logical form having form controls.
[Tutorial] Forms in OpenOffice.org Base

[eeigor]

@eeigor

For some reason, these labels are not editable.

@Villeroy, thanks. The wizard groups controls with their labels for easy move.
Select the control pair. Right click >> Ungroup. And you can edit your label.

[Villeroy]

@eeigor

Right click >> Ungroup. And you can edit your label.

Better keep the grouping and use Ctrl+Click to select a single grouped control or right-click the single control in the forms navigator.

[eeigor]

Yes, it works like that. Well, now, it seems, the topic is exhausted.

[Villeroy]

Short answer: Save your data in a proper database (easiest but limited: dBase) and roll your own forms. Since form design is a bit like development work, you need some extra skills. The result will be very easy to use, so the extra effort pays off for all data collection that grow over time (most of today’s spreadsheets, I guess)

[eeigor]

Thanks. I was here as a trainee too.

[Mike991]

If the form document is an ordinary Writer document, can a form be created & used with a Calc spreadsheet? I don’t need any controls, just a form that’s laid out differently than what Calc provides.

[Villeroy]

The controls of a form are the boxes where you type in your data plus the push buttons and labels. You are free to layout the form controls any way you want. Just forget about spreadsheets. Your text data have nothing to do with any spreadsheet software.