Kexi/Handbook/Building Simple Databases/Designing Forms/Inserting widgets - text fields
Inserting widgets - text fields
Let us create a form to show information about persons, i.e. a form connected to the Persons table.
As the form is to be designed to present data obtained from the Persons table, we need to place appropriate fields onto it. To do this we will use the buttons on the toolbar. Each button corresponds to a single widget type.
- Click button on the toolbar.
- Click on the form surface with the left mouse button. A new text box widget will be placed at the point where you clicked. Before you release you can drag your mouse to specify a desired size for the widget.
- If needed, move the inserted widget using drag & drop to the desired position. You can resize the widget afterwards by dragging one of the small boxes appearing near its corners. Note that the boxes are only visible when the widget is selected. If you select another widget or the form surface, the boxes disappear.
- Click the toolbar button again and click on the form surface to insert another widget. Repeat this action until you have a total of five text boxes on your form. (For the sake of simplicity we limit ourselves to five data fields).
Note
* There is a context menu available in Form Design mode, activated by a right mouse button click on the desired widget or the form's surface. The menu offers commands like , , , and other, more complex options. Keyboard shortcuts are also available for these commands. Some of the commands are only available for certain types of widgets.
- The commands , and makes it possible to move or copy widgets between forms, even between separate database projects.
- Holding the Ctrl key down while clicking a widget allows selection of multiple widgets.
- Instead of using and commands, to duplicate a widget within the same form you can hold down the Ctrl key while moving the widget. After the mouse button is released, the dragged widget will not be moved but copied in the new location.