Help with LO Forms

users
#1

*Hi All*

I need some help with Forms for LO.

I have a Spreadsheet of Data and I have prepared a Form in Writer to display and edit this information.
As per "Getting Started with LO", Chapter 15 I select - New - Database, Connect to existing DB, select the Spreadsheet and Register it
I then go to the Form in Writer and select Properties of the Fields, select Data and pull down the Data Source options BUT it is empty with nothing to select!!

What am I missing or doing wrong.??

I also need to know how to move between records and how to save any new Records added in the Form and how to save them.
I can't find any info on this.

My OpSys is PClinuxOS 64-bit and my LO is ver 5.3.0.3

Thanks for any help

IanW
Pretoria RSA

#2

Hi Ian,

What am I missing or doing wrong.??

Sounds like you haven't bound your Writer form to the datasource.

You don't say whether you created your form from within an ODB database
file or whether you are creating your form as a standalone Writer
document that needs to be bound to the datasource. I am assuming the
latter from what you have described.

In your open Writer document, click on Display - Toolbars - Form Controls.

Then click on the Design Mode button to activate Form Design mode
(bottom icon on right of the 2-column toolbar).

You should now see a new toolbar displayed at the bottom of your Writer
window. This toolbar contains a certain number of tools.

Click on the Form Navigator button - a window should appear with an
entry in in called Form.

Right-mouse-button click on this entry to call up the context menu.
Click on New - Form.

A further Form entry is added to the window, underneath the first Form
entry.

Now, right-mouse-button click on this second Form entry and choose
Properties from the context menu.

You should now see 3 tabs in the dialog. You need the Data tab (click on
it to select it). In the DataSource field, you should be able to list
and select with the mouse the already declared datasources. If you can't
see it in the list, then clicking on the ellipsis button will take you
to FileManager dialog where you can select the ODB containing your
datasource.

Tailor the other properties of the form to suit your needs.

Close the dialog and save your form.

Alex

#3

Hi Ian,

I have a Spreadsheet of Data and I have prepared a Form in Writer
to display and edit this information.

This won't work. You can't use a a table in Calc as a database and
edit this data in a form of the database or in a form of wirter.
Tables of a spreadsheet aren't editable in Base, You could only search
througt that data, filter them but can't change them.

Regards

Robert
- --
Homepage: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de
LibreOffice Community: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de/map_3

#4

See https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Importing_and_Exporting_Data_in_Base to do this.

#5

Hi Paul,

See
https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Importing_and_Exporting_Data_in_Ba

se

to do this.

This won't help. The Calc-file is the content of the database. Data
haven't been exported into Base or something else (Firebird ...). So
Ian has first to export the data- and I don't know if he doesn't need
the contact to Calc for the data any more.

On 2/16/2017 11:52 AM, Robert Großkopf wrote: Hi Ian,

I have a Spreadsheet of Data and I have prepared a Form in
Writer to display and edit this information.

This won't work. You can't use a a table in Calc as a database and
edit this data in a form of the database or in a form of wirter.
Tables of a spreadsheet aren't editable in Base, You could only
search througt that data, filter them but can't change them.

Regards

Robert
- --
Homepage: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de
LibreOffice Community: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de/map_3

#6

Sorry, I wasn't being clear.

On the webpage at: https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Importing_and_Exporting_Data_in_Base you will find:

*Importing data to Base*
*You can import* text files, *spreadsheet files*, and your system address book in read-only mode only.
*When you import from a* text or*spreadsheet file, the file must have a first row of header information. The second row of the file is the first valid data row. The format of every field in the second row determines the format for the entire column. Any format information from a spreadsheet file gets lost when importing to Base.*
      For example, to ensure the first column has a text format, you must make sure that the first field of the first valid data row contains text. If a field in the first valid data row contains a number, the whole column is set to number format, and only numbers, no text, will be shown in that column.

*Open a Base file of the database type that you want.*
     Either create a new Base file using the Database Wizard, or open any existing Base file that is not read-only.
*Open the Calc file that contains the data to be imported to Base*. You can open a *.dbf dBASE file or many other file types.
*Select the data to be copied to Base*.
     You can enter a range reference like A1:X500 in the Name Box if you don't want to scroll.
     If you copy a dBASE sheet, include the top row that contains the header data.
*Choose Edit - Copy*.
*In the Base window, click Tables to view the tables.**
** In the Base window, choose Edit - Paste.*
*You see the Copy Table dialog. Most databases need a primary key, so you may want to check the Create primary key box.**

#7

Thanks Guys - Appreciated!!

But I'm confused. The Handbook says Calc can be used as the datasource for a Form in Writer.
But even Alexander's method still gives me no option to select the Registered Spreadsheet (The options box remains empty)!!

The other replies tell me Calc can _NOT_ do this (But the Handbook says it can!!??)

Everyone else wants me to use Base but I'm NOT interested in this at all as I battled with it for 7 years and could never get a stable set-up. It crashed frequently and usually took all the data with it or 'gabbled' the data - so you spend more time with back ups and patching damaged data records. I can not let the end user have such an unstable program to work with. I hoped the Calc/Writer Form would prove more reliable.

So if this can not work I'll have to move to Kexi which is rock solid,

With best regards

IanW
Pretoria RSA

#8

Hi Ian,

But I'm confused. The Handbook says Calc can be used as the datasource
for a Form in Writer.
But even Alexander's method still gives me no option to select the
Registered Spreadsheet (The options box remains empty)!!

The other replies tell me Calc can _NOT_ do this (But the Handbook says
it can!!??)

I believe Robert is correct. Spreadsheets that are accessed directly as
datasources are read only (they always have been, AFAIK, ever since the
early StarOffice days). In other words, even if you manage to bind that
datasource to a form, you can only ever read from it (and not enter new
data).

It was my (mis)understanding that you had used a Calc spreadsheet to
convert your spreadsheet data to a Base ODB file (using the hsqldb or
some other db engine). The aim of my reply was to show you how one can
define the data source for a form.

An alternative would be to craft a spreadsheet so that it looks like a
database form, e.g. by using coloured cells, dropdown lists, etc, but
this would be a poor man's alternative.

Alex

#9

Hi Ian,

But I'm confused. The Handbook says Calc can be used as the
datasource for a Form in Writer.

Don't know which Handbook you mean. The Handbook Base says:

- -----
Calc or Excel spreadsheets can also be used as the table source for
databases. If, however, a Calc spreadsheet is used, no editing of the
table data will be possible.
- -----

Could be the translation from German to English isn't clear enough,
but I haven't written anywhere in German Base-Handbuch you could use a
spreadsheet for data-input in Base or by a form in Writer.

Everyone else wants me to use Base but I'm NOT interested in this
at all as I battled with it for 7 years and could never get a
stable set-up. It crashed frequently and usually took all the data
with it or 'gabbled' the data - so you spend more time with back
ups and patching damaged data records. I can not let the end user
have such an unstable program to work with. I hoped the Calc/Writer
Form would prove more reliable.

I have created many databases, also with the internal HSQLDB. While
creating reports I got some troubles, but the users seem to have no
troubles for a long time with these databases.

For professional use I would prefer an external database like MySQL,
connected with Base.

You could use an external database also. If a spreadsheet will save
the data you need, a dBase-file will do this also.

Regards

Robert
- --
Homepage: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de
LibreOffice Community: http://robert.familiegrosskopf.de/map_3