How to make a database open straight to a form
Set a start-up form in Base by Zaweba from the Database menu, or right-click a form in the navigation pane, and the database opens on that form.
Set a start-up form. In Base by Zaweba you choose it from the Database menu, or right-click any form in the navigation pane and make it the start-up form. From then on, opening the database takes people straight to that form instead of leaving them looking at a list of tables.
It is a small setting with a big effect on how friendly a database feels, especially for people who just want to get on with entering records.
Which form to choose
There are two common choices. One is the form people use most, such as a Members form for a club secretary or an Orders form for a small shop. They open the file and start typing.
The other is a menu. Create > Switchboard makes a form with a button for every form, report and query, and offers it as the start-up form there and then. A menu suits databases used by several people for different jobs, since everyone can find their own starting point.
Setting it from the Database menu
The Database menu holds the start-up options together. As well as the display form, it sets the application title shown in the window and the automatic backups. Setting a title is worth doing at the same time, so the window says what the database is for rather than showing a file name.
Setting it from the navigation pane
The navigation pane lists the database's tables, queries, forms, reports and scripts. Right-click a form there and choose to make it the start-up form. That is the quickest way when you already have the form in front of you, and the quickest way to change your mind later.
If the pane is long, type part of the form's name into its search box to show only the matching items.
Getting the form ready first
A form that people meet first should be easy to use. Auto form gives a complete form for a table, with a sub-form for each table that looks it up, so an Invoices form shows its lines underneath with a total. From there, use the form designer to put the most-used fields at the top, add buttons for common jobs (new record, print a report, open another form), and consider conditional formatting to colour values that need attention.
Form view shows one record at a time with first, previous, next, last and new, and moving to another record saves the current one, as in Access.
Templates and older files
The five templates already open on their main form, so a database started from one behaves this way from the first day. Older .obase files are moved up to the current format when first opened, after a backup copy, and the start-up form setting is kept with the rest of the design inside the file. If a start-up form ever stops working after a crash or an odd edit, Database > Compact and repair checks Base's design tables, the start-up form included, and puts them right.
Changing it later
A start-up form only decides what opens first. To pick a different one, set it again from the Database menu or right-click another form in the navigation pane. It is worth revisiting when the database grows: the form that made sense with one table may give way to a menu once there are five.
The setting lives in the .obase file itself, so it travels with the database: copy the file to another PC, or open it in the Mac or Linux version of Base by Zaweba, and it opens on the same form.
