Entering Check Boxes into Design View

[Guest]

I have entered two checkboxes into my personal database. They are used to
indicate whether this person is part of our sunday school dept and/or part of
our bus ministry. However, when I click on one, it is checked on every
person in my database instead of just that one. I know I am not setting it
up right, however, I am very limited on my Access 2003 knowledge. Can anyone
help by explaining it in layman's terms. I really dont undesrtand controls
and all of that. It is foreign to me. Thank you. Also, is it possible to
link a record in my master database to a different database by clicking on a
check box ? For example, linking a record to a sunday school database? (I
haven't set that up yet.) Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hi jkgirl,

You need to have fields in the table behind your form that are yes/no
fields, one for each check box you want to use. Then, on the form, ensure
that you have the check box's Control Source property set to the field you
entered into your table.

It is possible to have links between multiple tables. I would recommend
having your tables in the same database, rather than attempting to link
across multiple databases (although if you have your front end and back end
split, you can simply link to tables from different databases if necessary).
By keeping them in the same database, you would potentially save duplication
issues - ie: if you have a list of people, there's no need for that to be in
two places - you simply need some way of indicating that they belong to
certain groups in the church.

Hope this helps.

Damian.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have entered two checkboxes into my personal database. They are used to
indicate whether this person is part of our sunday school dept and/or part of
our bus ministry. However, when I click on one, it is checked on every
person in my database instead of just that one. I know I am not setting it
up right, however, I am very limited on my Access 2003 knowledge. Can anyone
help by explaining it in layman's terms. I really dont undesrtand controls
and all of that. It is foreign to me. Thank you. Also, is it possible to
link a record in my master database to a different database by clicking on a
check box ? For example, linking a record to a sunday school database? (I
haven't set that up yet.) Thanks!

The first thing to realize is that data is NOT stored in Forms. Data
is stored in Tables, AND ONLY IN TABLES.

You can put a checkbox onto a Form - but that doesn't mean that the
check you put into it is stored anywhere! It isn't. It's just
displayed on the form while the form is open. And, as you see, if it's
a continous Form, then there is really only one checkbox, displayed as
many times as there are records on the form.

If you want to record what ministry a person is in using a checkbox,
you must open the Table in design view and add a Yes/No field to the
table, and then change the Form so that it displays that field.

HOWEVER... this is not a good design, frankly! Having a field for Bus
Minstry and another field for Sunday School isn't all that bad... but
if you add a field for Senior Visitation Ministry and one for Musician
and one for Adult Bible Study and one for... well, your church may be
blessed with lots of people but your database will be cursed with the
dread condition of Spreadsheetitis.

I would really suggest that you have THREE tables:

People
PersonID
LastName
FirstName
<other biographical details>

Ministries
MinistryID <Autonumber Primary Key>
Description <e.g. Sunday School, Musician, Bus Ministry, ...>

Callings
PersonID <who's doing a given ministry>
MinistryID <what they're doing>
<any other fields about this person's role in this ministry>

On your Form you would have a Subform based on Callings, with a Combo
Box to select which calling they follow. This will let you add a *row*
for each, rather than a new field for each.

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[John W. Vinson]

I have entered two checkboxes into my personal database. They are used to
indicate whether this person is part of our sunday school dept and/or part of
our bus ministry. However, when I click on one, it is checked on every
person in my database instead of just that one. I know I am not setting it
up right, however, I am very limited on my Access 2003 knowledge. Can anyone
help by explaining it in layman's terms. I really dont undesrtand controls
and all of that. It is foreign to me. Thank you. Also, is it possible to
link a record in my master database to a different database by clicking on a
check box ? For example, linking a record to a sunday school database? (I
haven't set that up yet.) Thanks!

If you're interested, I have a church membership database that's in
use at over a dozen churches. It's free for the asking. It handles
lists of members, lists of activities (e.g. Sunday School, Choir,
Deacons, etc.), and their relationship; and generates mailing lables
or envelopes, sends emails, etc. If you're interested send an email to
jvinson <at> wysard of info <dot> com.

John W. Vinson [MVP]