Form organization
A form is organized in a hierarchy. Each part of the hierarchy has its own properties. When you create a form, you generally specify the structure and properties of its hierarchy starting at the top and working down to the lowest details.
- Form
- The form contains one or more tabs. Forms and their properties are described in greater detail in Form properties.
- Tab
Top-level tabs are directly contained by a form. Other tabs can be contained by a multi tab section (described in Stacking sections). More than one tab can be under the same form or section. However, the contents of only one tab under the same form or section is visible at one time. When you select a tab, its contents become visible and the contents of other tabs under the same form or section are not visible.
A tab contains one or more sections.
Tabs are described in greater detail in Form tab properties.
- Section
A tab contains one or more sections. Each section in a tab usually displays different information, though this is not required. The sections of a tab are different in their purpose than sections in a record. The basic purpose of sections in a record is to contain data. The basic purpose of sections in a tab is the presentation of data, even though it is possible to use the sections of a tab as containers for temporary data. Temporary data is described in Temporary data.
Different kinds of sections are used to display different kinds of information in different ways. A summary of the different types of sections appears in Overview of form sections.
- Field and buttons
Some types of sections can contain fields or buttons. A field contains an individual piece of information. A button does not contain any information but can trigger an action when clicked.
Fields are described in Form field properties. Buttons are described in Buttons.
The structure described in the preceding paragraphs is the internal presentation structure of the form. For forms that are used to present records that are part of a hierarchy, there is also an external presentation structure used to determine what forms will be used to look at other records in the hierarchy. This external presentation structure is discussed in Includes/Forms tab.