Form Design Advice - Tree Data Structure

[Guest]

I have four tables, each with an ID field, a name field, and a foreign key
linking the tables such that their is a one-to-many realtionship between them
(tblTask has fields for TaskTypeID and Price):

tblJob has many tblGroup has many tblLocation has many tblTask. I'm only
concerned with creating one new job at a time. Each job typically has around
10 groups, each group typically has around 30 locations, and each location
has around 4 tasks.

I'm struggling to come up with a form design that will allow this
information to be inputted quickly (it will always be inputted in one
sitting, other tables related to tblTask are where the regular updates
occur). The easy way is to use several forms in a similar style to the
Northwind Orders form, but this would require lots of clicking to open and
close the relevant forms.

A good form design would be something along the lines of that seen in MS
Project. Is something like this available in Access? Otherwise, do you have
any ideas how this form could be designed? Currently (to test my other forms)
I've been inputting data directly into the tables (with the subtable feature
meaning I only have to open one table to input all the information).

Thanks

Dave

 

[Guest]

Use sub forms.
tblJob would be the recordsource fo the main form. It can have a sub form
that would use tblGroup. This sub form can then have a sub form based on
tblLocation which would have a sub form for tblTask

 

[Guest]

Thanks, that was my initial idea. I've tried it and it's OK, but a little
clunky. The sizing of the forms is a pain to get right too. Sometimes Access
leaves a huge gap between the form footer and the form itself. To get around
this you have to explicitly set the size of the form, something I don't
usually do because auto-resize seems to work better.

Dave

 

[Guest]

Yes, that is my biggest complaint about Access. It is almost impossible to
control the size and location of forms. I have never understood why Access
wants to control the size and location of user forms.