Writer Guide

Chapter 15
Using Forms in Writer

Introduction to forms

This chapter covers the use of forms within Writer documents. Most of the information here also applies to forms in other LibreOffice components, but there are some differences.

The chapter presents information on using forms in four main sections: setting up a basic form, an example for creating a form, linking a form to a data source, and finally some advanced techniques.

LibreOffice forms cover a lot of ground and not everything is included here. Notable omissions are using forms in HTML documents and writing macros to link to form controls.

When to use forms

A standard text document displays information: a letter, report, or brochure, for example. Typically the reader may edit everything or nothing in the document. A form has sections that are not to be edited, and other sections that are designed for the reader to make changes. For example, a questionnaire has an introduction and questions (which do not change) and spaces for the reader to enter answers.

LibreOffice offers several ways to enter information into a form, including check boxes, option buttons, text boxes, pull-down lists, and other items, collectively known as form controls.

Forms are used in three ways:

• To create a simple document for the recipient to complete, such as a questionnaire sent out to a group of people who fill it in and return it.

• To link into a database or data source and allow the user to enter information. Someone taking orders might enter the information into a database using a form.

• To view information held in a database or data source. A librarian might call up information about books.

Using forms to access a database offers a fast and easy way to build up complex graphical front ends. Your form can include not only the fields that link up to the data source but also text, graphics, tables, drawings and other elements.

A typical way to use a simple form is:

1. You design the form, then save it when you are happy with it.

2. You send the form to others (for example, by email).

3. They fill in the form, save it and send it back to you.

4. You open the form and see what their answers are.

Alternatives to using forms in Writer

In LibreOffice, the Base component provides an alternative way to access a data source. There are a lot of similarities between forms in Base and Writer, but one may be better for a particular task than the other. Base is appropriate only if the form accesses a data source; you would not use it for simple forms.

Most other LibreOffice components—Calc, Impress, and Draw—also support forms in almost the same way that Writer does.

Creating a simple form

This section explains how to create a simple form without any links to a data source or database and without advanced customization.

Create a document

There is nothing special to be done when creating a document to use as a form. Create a new Writer document with File → New → Text document.

Open the form toolbars

Two toolbars control form creation: Form Controls and Form Design. Select View → Toolbars → Form Controls and View → Toolbars → Form Design to show them both. The Form Controls toolbar has a button for each of the most commonly used types of control.

You can also open the Form Design toolbar from the Form Controls toolbar. Some of the less commonly used controls are on a third toolbar—More Controls—also opened from the Form Controls toolbar.

You can dock these toolbars in different places on the Writer window, or leave them floating. Figure 1 shows the three toolbars floating.

See “Form controls reference” on page 7 for descriptions of the tools on these toolbars.

Activate design mode

Click the Design Mode On/Off button on the Form Controls toolbar to turn design mode on. (Click it again when you want to turn it off.) This activates the buttons for inserting form controls and selects controls for editing.

When design mode is off, the form behaves as it would for the end user. Buttons can be pressed, check boxes selected, list items selected, and so on.

Insert form controls

1. To insert a form control into the document, click the control’s icon to select it. The mouse pointer changes to look like this:

2. Click in the document where you want the control to appear. (You can move it later.)

3. Holding the left mouse button down, drag the control to size it. Some controls have a fixed size symbol followed by the name of the control (for example, Check Box or Option Button).

4. The control button remains active, so you can insert several controls of the same type without needing to go back to the toolbar.

5. To change to another tool, click its icon on the toolbar.

6. To stop inserting controls, click on the Select button on the Form Controls toolbar, or click on any of the controls you have just inserted. The mouse pointer changes back to its normal appearance.

Configure controls

After inserting the controls, you need to configure them to look and behave as you want. Right-click on a form control within your document and select Control from the context menu to open the Properties dialog box for the selected control. Double-clicking on a form control also opens this dialog box.

The Properties dialog box has three pages: General, Data, and Events. For simple forms, only the General page is of any interest. On this page you can set the look and feel of the control. See “Configure form controls” on page 14 and “Form control formatting options” on page 24 for more information, and the descriptions in the Help for details. Configuration for use with a database is discussed in “Creating a form for data entry” on page 19.

The fields on this dialog box vary with the type of control. For example:

• Some controls have visible labels, such as Push Button and Option Button. The label text can be set.

• The List Box contains a list of options to choose from. Set these in the List entries box.

Notice the scroll bar in this dialog box. You can use the scroll bar or enlarge the dialog box to see additional fields.

Use the form

To use the form, leave design mode by clicking the Design Mode On/Off button to deactivate it. Save the form document.

Form controls reference

Example: a simple form

Create the document

Open a new document (File → New → Text Document). It is a good idea to write down the outline of the document, without form controls, though of course it can easily be changed later.

Add form controls

The next step is to add the form controls to the document. We will have four controls:

• Name is a text box.

• Sex is two option buttons, male or female.

• Favourite shape is a list of options.

• All shapes you like is a series of check boxes.

To add these controls:

1. Select View → Toolbars → Form Controls to open the Form Control toolbar.

2. If the tools are not active, click the Design Mode On/Off button to activate them.

3. Click the Text Box button , then click in the document and, with the left mouse button held down, drag the shape of the Name text box to approximately the size you want.

4. Make sure the Wizards On/Off button is on (shaded with a border). Click the More Controls button to launch the More Controls toolbar.

5. On the More Controls toolbar, click the Group Box button . Draw a group box by the Sex: entry. The Group Element Wizard opens.

1. On the first page of the wizard, enter two names for the options fields: Male and Female. Click the >> button after each entry. Click Next >>.

2. On the next page, select the option No, one particular field is not going to be selected. Click Next>>.

3. Give a value to your fields. Typically, you would give one field the value 1 and the other field the value 2. If there are more than 2 option fields, you would give them values of 3, 4, and so on. Click Next >>.

4. You can either delete the caption or give a caption to your Group Box. In this example, delete the caption. Then click Finish.

6. Now create the list box. On the Form Controls toolbar, click the Wizards On/Off button to turn wizards off. Click the List Box button and draw a list box by Favourite Shape in the document. This will just be an empty pane for now.

7. Finally create four check boxes by All shapes you like. Click on the Check Box button and then draw out four check boxes, side by side across the page.

You should now have a document looking something like Figure 8.

Configure form controls

No further configuration is required to the Name and Sex fields, but you could, if you wish, give a name to each control and change the appearance of the controls.

The list box must be configured to add the list of options. The check boxes must be configured to add in the names (instead of Check Box, Check Box 2, and so forth). Following are instructions to configure these controls:

1. Be sure design mode is on. Double-click on the List Box control within the document to open the control’s Properties dialog box. Select the General tab.

2. In the List Entries box (scroll down if it is not visible), type the names of the shapes (Circle, Triangle, Square, Pentagon) one at a time. After each, press Shift+Enter. You should end up with a line saying "Circle";"Triangle";"Square";"Pentagon".

3. Click on the first Check Box. The Properties dialog box stays open but changes to show the properties for the check box.

4. Change the Label from Check Box to Circle and press Enter. The cursor moves to Label Field and the label on the check box in the document changes immediately.

5. Click on each of the other three check boxes in turn. Change the Label in the Properties dialog box to Triangle, Square, and Pentagon in turn.

6. Close the Properties dialog box.

7. Turn design mode off and close the two Controls toolbars.

You have now completed the form, which should look something like Figure 11.

Finishing touches

The form is complete, but you are free to make further changes to the document. If you were sending this out to other people to complete, you would probably want to make the document read-only. The effect would be that users would be able to fill in the form but not to make any other changes to the document.

To make the document read-only, select Tools → Options → LibreOffice → Security → Open this document in read-only mode.

Accessing data sources

The most common use for a form is as the front end of a database. You can provide a form that allows users to enter information into a contacts database and, because it is part of a Writer document, the form can contain graphics, formatting, tables, and other elements to make it look just the way you want. Modifying the form is as simple as editing a document.

LibreOffice can access numerous data sources. These include ODBC, MySQL, Oracle JDBC, spreadsheets and text files. As a general rule, databases can be accessed for read and write; other data sources (such as spreadsheets) are read-only.

Creating a database

Chapter 8, Getting Started with Base, in the Getting Started guide covers in more detail how to create a database. Here we give a short guide to creating a very simple database with LibreOffice Base.

1. Select File → New → Database to start the Database Wizard.

2. Select Create a new database and click Next >>.

3. On the next page, select Yes, register the database for me and Open the database for editing. Registering the database means that it can be accessed from other LibreOffice components such as Writer and Calc. You need to do this if you want to link forms into it.

4. Click Finish and save your new database, giving it a name. Unlike creating other documents in LibreOffice, databases must be saved when you first create them.

After saving the database, you should see the main Base window (Figure 13), which contains three panels. The left-hand panel is Database, with icons for Tables, Queries, Forms and Reports.

The next step is to create a table. Again, this is covered in more detail in Chapter 8, Getting Started with Base, in the Getting Started guide. Here we are going to create a small table as an example.

1. Choose Tables in the left-hand column, then choose Create Table in Design View under Tasks.

2. Use the Table Design window to tell Base which fields to create. We will have three input data fields: Name, Address, and Telephone.

3. On the first line, enter under Field Name ID and set the Field Type to Integer [INTEGER]. In the gray box at the left of the line, right-click and select Primary Key, bringing up a key icon in the box. In the Field Properties at the bottom of the window is an Auto Value option; change this to Yes. Optionally, type Primary key in the Description column. See Figure 14.

4. On the next three lines, enter under Field Name Name, Address and Telephone. Accept the default Field Type of Text [VARCHAR] and leave Description blank.

5. Save the table (File → Save). You will be prompted to name it. The name can be anything you like.

6. Finally, close the table design window to return to the main Base window. If File → Save is available, select it to save the whole database.

Accessing an existing data source

If you have an existing data source, such as a spreadsheet or database, you simply need to tell LibreOffice about it. This is called registering a data source.

To register an existing data source:

1. Select File → New → Database to launch the Database Wizard.

2. Select Connect to an existing database and choose the type from the drop-down list.

3. Click Next and follow the instructions to select the database to register (the exact process varies between different types of data source).

4. In Step 3: Save and proceed, check that Yes, register the database for me is selected. Deselect Open the database for editing – you just need to register it, not edit it through Base.

Creating a form for data entry

Whether you created a new database, or already had a data source, it must be registered with LibreOffice (see above). Once it is registered, linking your form to the data source is simple. Follow these steps to create a new form and link it to a registered data source.

1. Create a new document in Writer (File → New → Text Document).

2. Design your form, without putting in the actual fields (you can always change it later).

3. Show the Form Controls toolbar (View → Toolbars → Form Controls).

4. Click the Design Mode On/Off button to put the document into design mode, if necessary. With design mode off, most of the toolbar buttons are grayed out. If the Design Mode button is also grayed out, click on the Select button to activate it.

5. Click the Text Box button . Click in the document and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse to create a text box for the first form field (for example, Name, if you are linking to the database created above).

6. Click the Text Box button again and drag the mouse to draw another field. Additional fields, of any type, can be added in the same way (click and drag).

So far you have followed the same steps used before when creating your first form. Now you will link the form with the data source you registered.

1. Click the Form button in the Form Controls toolbar, or right-click on any of the fields you inserted and select Form, to open the Form Properties dialog box.

2. In the Form Properties dialog box, click on the Data tab.

• Set Data Source to be the data source you registered.

• Set Content Type to be Table.

• Set Content to be the name of the table you want to access.

• Close the dialog box.

3. For each form control in turn, click on the control to select it (so small green boxes appear around it), then launch the Properties dialog box: either right-click and select Control or click on the Control button on the Form Controls toolbar.

4. In the Properties dialog box, click on the Data tab (Figure 18). If you set up the form correctly, the Data Field option will contain a list of the different fields in the data source (for example, Name, Address and Telephone). Select the field you want.

5. Repeat for each control in turn until every control that should be has been assigned to a field.

Entering data into a form

Once you have created a form and tied it to a database, you want to use it to enter data into your data source, or modify data already there.

1. Make sure that the form is not in design mode. In the Form Controls toolbar, click on the Design Mode On/Off button . If design mode is off, most of the buttons on the toolbar will be grayed out.

2. Make sure that the Form Navigation toolbar is on (View → Toolbars → Form Navigation). This toolbar normally appears at the bottom of the window.

3. If there is existing data in the data source, use the control buttons on the Form Navigation toolbar to look at different records. You can amend data in a record by editing the values in the form. To submit the changes, press the Enter key with the cursor in the last field. The record is saved and the next record is displayed.

4. If there is no data in the form, you can start entering information by typing into the fields of the form. To submit the new record, press the Enter key with the cursor in the last field.

5. Other functions can be performed from the Form Navigation toolbar, including deleting a record and adding a new record.

Advanced form customization

Linking a macro to a form control

You can set any form control (for example, text box or button) to perform an action when triggered by some event. To see the full list of events, right-click on the form control when the design mode is on, select Control and click on the Events tab.

To assign a macro to an event:

1. Create the macro. See Chapter 13, Getting Started with Macros, in the Getting Started guide.

2. Be sure the form is in design mode. Right-click on the form control, select Control and click on the Events tab.

3. Click the browse button to bring up the Assign action dialog box (Figure 21).

4. Click the Macro button and select the macro from the list in the Macro Selector dialog box. You return to the Assign action dialog box. Repeat as needed, then click OK to close the dialog box.

Macros can also be assigned to events relating to the form as a whole. To assign these, right-click on a form control in the document, select Form and click on the Events tab.

Read-only documents

Having created your form, you want whoever is using it to be able to access the information stored in the database, or complete the form, without changing the layout. To do this, make the document read-only by choosing File → Properties → Security and selecting the Open file read-only option.

Fine-tuning database access permissions

By default, when a database is accessed from a form, any changes can be made to it: records can be added, deleted, and amended. You may not want that behavior. For example, you may want users to be able only to add new records or to be prohibited from deleting existing records.

In design mode, right-click on a form control and select Form from the context menu. On the Data tab of the Form Properties dialog box are a number of options: Allow additions, Allow deletions, Allow modifications and Add data only. Set each of these to Yes or No to control the access users have to the data source.

Individual fields can also be protected. This might be useful if you wanted a user to be able to modify some parts of a record but only view others, such as a stock list where item descriptions are fixed and quantities can be modified.

To make an individual field read-only, in design mode, right-click on the form control within the document and select Control from the context menu. Select the General tab and set Read-only to Yes.

Form control formatting options

You can customize the way form controls look and behave in a number of ways. These are all accessed in design mode. Right-click on the form control, select Control from the context menu and select the General tab in the Properties dialog box.

• Set a label for the control in the Label box (not to be confused with the box called Label Field). Some form controls, such as push buttons and option buttons, have visible labels that can be set. Others, such as text boxes, do not.

• Set whether the form control will print out if the document is printed with the Print option.

• Use the Font setting to set the font, typeface, and size for a field’s label or for text typed into a field. This setting does not affect the size of check boxes or option buttons.

• For a text box, you can set the maximum text length. This is very useful when adding records into a database. Every database text field has a maximum length and, if the data entered is too long, LibreOffice displays an error message. By setting the maximum text length of the form control to be the same as that of the database field, this error can be avoided.

• You can set the default option for a form control. By default, a control is blank, or has every option unselected. You can set the control to start with a particular option or list item selected.

• For controls where a password is being entered, setting the Password character (for example to *) displays only that character, but saves what the user really types.

• You can add additional information and help text for a form control.

• Other formatting controls such as background color, 3-D look, text formatting, scroll bars, and borders allow you to further define how the control appears.

XForms

XForms are a new type of web form, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). LibreOffice 3 supports the XForms 1.0 open standard for creating web forms with XML.

In LibreOffice, an XForms document is a special type of Writer document. XForms use the same controls as the ordinary forms described in this chapter.

After you create and save an XForms document, you can open the document, fill out the form, and submit the changes to a server.

A detailed discussion of XForms is beyond the scope of this chapter, as it is related more to databases than word processing. A good tutorial introduction is J. David Eisenberg’s XForms and OpenDocument in OpenOffice.org, available from http://opendocument.xml.org/files/xforms_ooo_06_10_25.pdf and from
http://books.evc-cit.info/xforms_ooo_06_08_15.odt. Another good resource is Valden Longhurst's Using XForms and the OpenDocument format in OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/Using_XForms