Movie enthusiasts will be able to have their precious collection just a click away thanks to this tutorial and Access.
First with VHS tapes, now with the more recent DVDs, film enthusiasts continue to collect titles upon titles for their precious video libraries. A video library, after all, is nothing but a database, which a program like Microsoft Access can manage with great ease. The first step to take in creating our film archive will be choosing the information to store, or better said, which fields we need to create.
The minimal data for a respectable video library are: genre, title, director, main actors (at least two), year, and country of production, as well as a space for any additional notes. Having said that, go to the Tables tab and double-click on the icon Create a table in design view. The table will be displayed in design mode, where we will populate the fields with the corresponding entries described above.
Except for the “Year” field, which will be Numeric type sized as Integer, all other fields will be Text; sizing the “Notes” to 255 characters, the “Genre” and “Country” fields to twenty-five, and the remaining fields to fifty characters. Once the table preparation is finished, save it, accepting Access’s offer to name it “Film”, like the table, and reject the creation of the primary key, since in this database we will not create relationships between tables.
Now move to the Forms tab where we will create the tool through which we will enter titles into our collection. Double-click on Create a form using the wizard and in the first step of the wizard, with the “Film” table already associated by default, move all the Available Fields to the Selected Fields box by clicking the small central button marked by the double greater-than symbol (>>).
In the second step of the wizard, for layout we will choose Tabular, a setting that allows multiple records (film titles) to be viewed simultaneously. The third step, regarding Styles, leads us to choose Standard, since this style allows for the greatest degree of form reworking and probably easier readability. Arriving at the final step, “Film” will be proposed as the name to give the form.
Access wizards often produce questionable results, but in this case, we are squarely in the mediocre range. To clarify the situation better, the attached image shows a form already populated with data, and as you can see, it is quite difficult to read the information contained within. We need to substantially modify our form. Switch to Design mode by clicking the appropriate button on the toolbar shaped like a set square.
The most significant problem is that the fields are too small compared to the names they need to contain. So we need to start increasing the available space by widening the form window. This operation is performed by placing the mouse pointer on one of the window edges until it becomes a double arrow; then, holding down the left button, drag to the right or left to enlarge it.
We will also have to increase, using the same window technique, the size of the form’s Body (the grid area populated by fields). Once done, we can start widening the fields, or rather the Text Boxes. Be careful not to confuse Text Boxes with Labels. Text Boxes correspond to table fields and display data, while Labels are the descriptive text of the field content, that is, the headers.
To modify or move the Text Boxes and Labels, click on them so that the border remains highlighted and a series of “handles” (small dark squares) appear. By acting on the handles (the mouse pointer becomes a double arrow), it is possible to resize the objects they belong to, while with the pointer on the selected border (but not on the handles), it becomes a “hand” allowing movement.
Before giving a final shape to the fields, if the predefined 8 pt. font size seems insufficient for proper display, increase their size. To avoid selecting one field at a time, select them all at once by placing the mouse pointer on the horizontal ruler, where it will become a downward arrow, then while holding down, drag to the right, to the end of the form’s Body.
After releasing the left button, you will see the Text Boxes and Labels selected. From the toolbar, use the Font Size button to increase the size to 10. As a result of this change, the fields may become too short vertically, so while still selected, right-click on one of them and from the context menu select Size > To Fit. This ensures they are all the same height.
Regarding the width of the Text Boxes, some trials will be necessary with very long names like “Arnold Schwarzenegger” to decide their sizing. Keep in mind that even with a monitor resolution of 1024×768 pt. (typical of 17-inch CRT monitors), it can be challenging to fit all fields on a single line. In this case, it is recommended to move the “Notes” field to the line below.
Label formatting, in addition to following personal tastes, should adhere to good visibility rules (ergonomic), thus ensuring good contrast between text and background. Also, an improvement to the Appearance, for example Sunken, enhances overall readability. To apply such improvements, select all Labels by clicking on the ruler, then use the appropriate buttons on the toolbar: Background, Font Color, and Appearance.
Since Text Boxes and Labels of differing sizes might not look good, let’s make them the same size, which if done manually is quite tedious. But Access allows us to automate this. Select both elements simultaneously and right-click. From the context menu, choose Size > To Widest. Probably, after all these adjustments, alignments will also need fixing.
To align all labels horizontally, select them and open the context menu with a right-click, then choose Align > Top. Use the same technique to align Labels and Text Boxes with one another by choosing Align > Left (or Right). Perform final tweaks by moving the Label named “Notes” to the left of its corresponding field and centering the text of the labels.
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