Forms - How to have many sub-forms in the Detail section of the main form?

[sg2808]

Hi,

I have the following Forms:

[Form A] - Main form - Single form type
[Form B] - Continuous form
[Form C] - Continuous form
[Form D] - Continuous form
[Form E] - Continuous form

I want to add [Form B], [Form C], [Form D], [Form E] as sub-form on the mainform [Form A].

The Forms have the following relationship based on the underlying table:

[Form A] 1:M [Form B] 1:M [Form C] M:M [Form D] M:1 [Form E]

I would also like that the forms are linked with each other ie, if I select a record on one of the parent Form, the corresponding child records should come up in the sub-forms.

I have tried doing this by placing:
[Form E] in [Form D]
[Form D] in [Form C]
[Form C] in [Form B]
[Form B] in [Form A]

However, I face two problems with this approach:

1. The continous form change to single form. I get this error - "A form with a subform object cannot have its DefaultView set to Continuous forms. You tried to add a subform to a form in design view. MSAcess will reset the property to Single Form."

2. The final product (Form A with all the sub-form) is not very eye pleasing. All the sub-forms are nested within each other and looks very complicated.

I am attaching the screen shots.
- The second screen shot shows my final product.
- The first screen shot shows the way I would like to see the Form and the Subform.

Could you please advise re my problems?

Many thanks.

PS: I don't have Photoeditor therefore could not attach it as picture.

[NeoPa]

1. Clearly then, you won't be able to have a subform within a form in Continuous Forms view. We can tell you little more than Access already has.
2. How you design your forms aesthetically is a personal decision. I see very little scope for helping with this. You know what you're after, set the sizes and positions of the various objects such that they result in what you want.

[sg2808]

Thanks NeoPa.

1. When I create a form using Form wizard with my first three underlying table, I could see that Access created the form with the subform in a "continuous" type. But if I try to do the same by the procedure as mentioned earlier for the 1st three forms, the form changes from continuous to singe. I am not sure why this is so.

2. I was thinking if i could use the Tab for each forms. However, I am wondering how do I link the tabs (Master - Child) if this is possible.

Could you please share your thoughts?

Thanks.

[NeoPa]

1. As I said, I can explain little better than Access already has. Subforms are not supported for running any main form in continuous view. IE. If a form has a subform then it cannot be shown in continuous view.
2. Tabs are largely irrelevant here. They are a perfectly sensible idea for organising data on a form, but the subform setup is the same whether within a tab control (Page) or not.