The Form Designer is a key tool in database creation. It allows creating new forms and editing already existing ones. To access it, as well as other database editors, use the Design DB menu:

The Form Designer window consists of four panes:

1. List of Forms

This list contains all forms available in the database and is used to select the current form for editing.

2. Editing Area

The Editor area is used to select elements and change their size and positioning. Click an element to select it. The selected element is highlighted with eight squares around it:

Drag one of the black squares to change the element size. Drag the mouse while holding the left button down to select multiple elements (the same way you select files in Windows):

Properties of the selected element are displayed at the upper part of the window.

3. Properties of the Selected Element

Properties of all elements are distributed over 8 tabs. 7 tabs are the same for all types of elements (Fonts, Scripts, Colors, Visibility and so on), and the content of the "Individual Properties" tab changes depending on the type of selected object. For example, in the picture above the properties of the form itself are displayed.

Short description of properties:

• Font/Color/Border - allows you to modify common properties of the elements, such as font or color.
• Tab Order - this group sets the tab order, that is, the sequence of input focus switched with the Tab key.
• Layout (for elements) - this group sets the element behavior when the size of a form changes.
• Layout (for forms) - this group sets the form position in the database window.
• Sheet (for elements) - this group allows you to define on which sheets of the form this element will be displayed.
• Sheets (for forms) - this group allows is used to add a new sheet to a form, delete an existing sheet or set its properties.
• Scripts and Behaviour - on this tab you can change elements behaviour on different user actions (on mouse click, on changing the value, etc.), or assign scripts.
• Edit and Visibility - on this tab you can determine conditions, in which the element shall be shown in the form, and conditions, in which the user will be able to change its value.

4. Toolbars

Using toolbars, you can perform the following actions:

• Creating and deleting forms;
• Changing order in the list of forms;
• Editing fields;
• Creating new fields.