Prompt based data entry - possible?

R

Richard Horne

Quick question really.

Is it possible to setup a database form that you fill in by answering
prompts/question boxes?

i.e. a customer complaint database could ask the following questions with
you filling in a single field at a time, and the answers to your questions
then populate the database.

E.g.
What's the name of complainant?

Which department was at fault with regards this complaint?

What is the recommended future action to prevent this happening again?

etc etc

Can this be done?
 
D

dlw

You can do that with a form. If you want one question to "pop up" at a time,
make a form for each question and open them one at a time with a macro.
 
L

Larry Daugherty

Hi Richard,

Yes, you can do it that way but it's considered to be a most unfriendly
thing to do. The popularity of the graphic user interfaces is that they
give users a lot of choices. What you have suggested is very much a
captive script kind of application. Users are used to having choices.
Think about when you're faced with the situation where you've been forced
into a single choice such as "Enter your password" that doesn't recognize
your password nor offer any way to bypass the screen or cleanly exit the
application. You might close the app from the task list or you might just
hit the power switch.

If you force your "customer service" people to march through your script
just that way you are also trying to frog-march your customer just as
tightly. Customers who feel abused tend to become ex-customers.

HTH
 
R

Richard Horne

Hi Lary, thank you for your comments and I very much appreciate your points.

The system I want to apply this to is an internal system, possibly either
our telephone call log, customer complaints database or quotation database.

The reason I am looking to use this method is that frequently our staff are
missing out key information when logging things and I want to FORCE them to
type in every piece of required information. And also prompt based data entry
means much less staff training.

Can someone elaborate more on how to do this, so I can at least give it a
go. If it does turn out to be restrictive and annoying, then at least it's a
useful skill learned for the future! :)
 
R

Rick B

Just build a normal form with the various fields in a nice layed-out format.
You can enter a "label" that spells out the question if you think your folks
need it.

As far as missing information, just make the fields required in the table,
or in the form (using code or using the validation rules). There is no need
to build a messy pop-up prompt-based interface just to ensure entries are
made. There are plenty of clean ways to accomplish that.

Rick B
 
L

Larry Daugherty

Hi Richard,

The prior reasoning still stands. I'm resisting actually answering your
question as posted because I simply know it to be a bad Idea. I've gotten
frustrated and angry with malicious people and rebellious types but there
are better ways ...

I suggest a less tyrannical approach by allowing more flexibility in the
entry process wherein your data entry types will try to guide the
conversation and get the required information but have the flexibility to
jump around in the form if they can't get cooperation from the caller. Make
sure they let the caller know that complaints with incomplete information
will be logged but not forwarded per management direction. Then they can
scan the form for completeness before they attempt to save it. If you've
designed the underlying table to require entries in every critical field
then they can keep the caller on the line until the form has been saved.

The lock-step method requires a great deal of programming. In the
AfterUpdate event of every control you must validate their entry, force a
retry if they fail, when the data appears OK then NextControl.Setfocus to
move the focus to the next control. Note that this will not prevent someone
simply moving the pointer to some later control and commencing data entry
there. The long and short of it is that you have to do a lot of detailed
programming (with a kind of angry mindset) to even approach what you want
and you can never be sure you've forced every possible path.

Table level validation allows a lot of flexibility while catching gross
errors.

HTH
 
A

ali alshrifi

Richard Horne said:
Quick question really.

Is it possible to setup a database form that you fill in by answering
prompts/question boxes?

i.e. a customer complaint database could ask the following questions with
you filling in a single field at a time, and the answers to your questions
then populate the database.

E.g.
What's the name of complainant?

Which department was at fault with regards this complaint?

What is the recommended future action to prevent this happening again?

etc etc

Can this be done?
Click to expand...
 
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