Setting the start-up form and window title in Base by Zaweba

Opening a database for the first time can feel like walking into a workshop. Everything is there, but nothing says where to begin. The start-up options in Base by Zaweba change that first impression. From the Database menu you choose the form shown when the file opens, the title shown in the window, and whether automatic backups are made.

They are three small settings, but together they turn a .obase file into something that looks and behaves like an application of its own.

The display form

The display form is the form Base opens as soon as the database starts. For a database used by several people, it is the single most useful setting, because it puts the right screen in front of them without any searching.

What makes a good display form depends on the job. A switchboard, with a button for every form, report and query, suits a database with several areas of work. Base's Create > Switchboard makes one and offers it as the start-up form. A data entry form suits a database whose main purpose is adding records, such as a visitor log. A summary form showing what needs attention, perhaps with conditional formatting highlighting late or low values, suits a database people check rather than fill in.

You can also set the start-up form by right-clicking a form in the navigation pane.

The application title

The application title replaces the usual window title with one you choose, such as the club's name or "Workshop stock". It sounds cosmetic, but it helps. People with several windows open can find the database at a glance, and a database with its own name feels more like a tool made for them than a file they've been sent.

Keep it short and plain. The name of the organisation and what the database is for is usually enough.

Automatic backups

The third option controls automatic backups. With it on, Base makes a copy of the database each day it is opened and keeps the latest ten, in the Backups folder under Documents\Base by Zaweba. Leave it on. It costs nothing in daily use and is the easiest protection against an accidental delete or a bad update.

If a database is very large and you already back it up another way, you might choose otherwise, but for most people the default is right.

Putting it together for someone else

When you build a database for other people, set all three before handing it over. Give it a title, choose a start-up form that leads with the everyday jobs, and check backups are on. Then open the file fresh, as they will, and see what they see.

That first view is worth a moment's thought. If the first screen is a clear menu with plain labels, people tend to stay on the paths you've made for them. If it is a bare navigation pane, they'll explore, and sooner or later someone will open a table directly and change something they didn't mean to.

For your own databases

Even for a database only you use, a start-up form can save a click or two every day. Opening straight onto the form you use most is a small comfort that adds up.

The settings live in the file itself, so they travel with it. Copy the .obase file to another PC, or open it on a Mac, and it opens the same way.