Writer Guide

Chapter 18
Forms

CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2021 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
To this edition
Jean Hollis Weber

Kees Kriek

To previous editions
Jean Hollis Weber
Pulkit Krishna
Ron Faile Jr.

Bruce Byfield
Barbara Duprey

Gillian Pollack
John A Smith

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org

Note
Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any otherpersonal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot
be deleted.

Publication date and software version
Published April 2021. Based on LibreOffice 7.1 Community.
Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

Using LibreOffice on macOS
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows andLinux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this document.
For a detailed list, see the application Help.
Windows or LinuxmacOS equivalent

EffectTools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/Contents
Copyright............................................................................................................................2
Contributors.............................................................................................................................. 2
Feedback.................................................................................................................................. 2
Publication date and software version.......................................................................................2
Using LibreOffice on macOS.....................................................................................................2

Introduction........................................................................................................................4
When to use forms............................................................................................................4
Alternatives to using forms in Writer..........................................................................................4

Creating a simple form......................................................................................................5
Create a document....................................................................................................................5
Open the form toolbars............................................................................................................. 5
Activate design mode................................................................................................................5
Insert form controls................................................................................................................... 5
Configure controls..................................................................................................................... 6
Use the form............................................................................................................................. 6

Form controls reference...................................................................................................6
Example: a simple form..................................................................................................10
Create the document............................................................................................................... 10
Add form controls.................................................................................................................... 11
Configure form controls...........................................................................................................11
Text box.............................................................................................................................. 11
Option buttons.................................................................................................................... 12
List box............................................................................................................................... 13
Check boxes...................................................................................................................... 14Group box.......................................................................................................................... 14
Finishing touches.................................................................................................................... 16

Accessing data sources.................................................................................................16
Creating a form for data entry.................................................................................................16
Entering data into a form.........................................................................................................18

Advanced form customization.......................................................................................18
Linking a macro to a form control............................................................................................18
Read-only documents............................................................................................................. 20
Fine-tuning database access permissions..............................................................................20
Form control formatting options...............................................................................................21

Chapter 18 Forms | 3

Introduction
This chapter covers the use of interactive forms within Writer documents. 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) andspaces for the reader to type answers or select from supplied choices.
Writer provides 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.
LibreOffice forms include a lot of features; not everything is described in this chapter. Notableomissions are using forms in HTML documents and writing macros to link to form controls.
LibreOffice Calc, Impress, and Draw also support forms in much the same way that Writer does.

When to use forms
Forms are used in three ways:•

To create a simple document for the recipient to complete, such as a questionnaire sentout 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
in a sales department might enter purchasers’ 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 complex graphical front
ends. Your form can include not only the fields that link 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.
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.

Tip
By using a data source, or setting a form to update over the web, you can gather
data automatically. However, those methods are more complex and are not coveredin this chapter.

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

4 | Chapter 18 Forms

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
You do not need to do anything special when creating a document to use as a form, though it’s agood idea to make sure that the grid is enabled so that controls can be positioned accurately. Go
to View > Grid and Helplines on the Menu bar and select Display Grid. You may also wish to
select Snap to Grid.
Create a new Writer document with File > New > Text document.

Open the form toolbars
Two toolbars control form creation: Form Controls (Figure 2) and Form Design (Figure 3). SelectView > Toolbars > Form Controls and View > Toolbars > Form Design on the Menu bar toshow them both. You can also open the Form Design toolbar on the Form Controls toolbar.
The Form Controls toolbar has an icon for each of the most commonly used types of control.
Some of these controls are also located on the Form menu (Figure 1).
You can dock these toolbars in different places on the Writer window, or leave them floating.
When they are floating, you can also change them from vertical to horizontal and change thenumber of tools on a row; to make these changes, drag a corner of the toolbar.
See “Form controls reference” on page 6 for descriptions of the tools on these toolbars.

Activate design mode
Click the Design Mode icon on the Form Controls toolbar to turn design mode on. (Click it again
to turn it off.) This activates or deactivates the icons 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 mousepointer changes shape.
2) Click in the document where you want the control to appear. (You can move it later.)3) Hold the left mouse button down and drag the control to size it. Some controls have afixed size symbol followed by the name of the control (for example, Check Box or Option
Button).
4) The control icon 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 the Select icon on the Form Controls toolbar, or click anyof the controls you have just inserted. The mouse pointer changes back to its normal
appearance.

Tip
To make a form control square, hold down the Shift key when creating it. To keep the
proportions of an existing control the same, hold down Shift when resizing it.
Creating a simple form | 5

Configure controls
After inserting the controls, you need to configure them to look and behave as you want. Rightclick a form control within the document and select Control in the context menu to open theProperties dialog for the selected control. Double-clicking on a form control also opens this
dialog.
The Properties dialog has three tabs: General, Data, and Events. For simple forms, only theGeneral tab is needed. See “Configure form controls” on page 11 and “Form control formatting
options” on page 21 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 16.
The fields on this dialog vary with the type of control. To see additional fields, use the scroll bar or
enlarge the dialog vertically.

Use the form
To use the form, leave design mode by clicking the Design Mode icon to deactivate it. Save theform document.

Form controls reference
The icons you see in Writer may differ from the ones shown here or they may be in a different
order on the toolbar.
Form submenu on Menu bar

Figure 1: Form submenu on Menu bar

6 | Chapter 18 Forms

Form Controls toolbar

Figure 2: Form Controls toolbar
Form Controls toolbar
1

SelectSelects a form control to perform some other action on it.

2

Design Mode

Toggles between design mode on (to edit forms) and design modeoff (to use forms).

3

Toggle Form
Control Wizards

Some form controls (List Box and Combo Box) have optional
wizards. If you do not want the wizard to launch when you create
one of these controls, use the Wizards On/Off icon to switch
wizards off.

4Form Design

Launches the Form Design toolbar, which can also be opened withView > Toolbars > Form Design.

5

Label

A text label. The difference between this and just typing on thepage is that, as a control, you can link a label field to macros so,for example, something happens when the mouse passes over itor clicks on it.

6

Text Box

A control to create a box into which the form’s user can type any
text.

7

Check Box

A box that can be selected or deselected on the form. You canlabel the box.

Option Button

Creates an option button (also known as a radio button). Whenmultiple buttons are grouped together, only one can be selected ata time. The easiest way to group multiple buttons is to use theGroup Box icon on the More Controls toolbar, with wizards
enabled.

9

List Box

Creates a list of options as a pull-down menu that the user canchoose from. If the form is linked to a data source and wizards areon, creating a list box launches the List Box Wizard.
If the form is not linked to a data source, turn wizards off andcreate an empty list box. Then in the List Entries field on the
General tab, enter the options you want to appear on the list.

10

Combo Box

As with a List Box, you set up a list of choices. In addition, a panelat the top either displays the choice made or allows the form user
to type in something else. This works the same as the List Box.

11

Push Button

Creates a button that can be linked to a macro. The label is thename that appears on the button.

12

Image Button

Behaves exactly like a push button, but displays as an image.
Choose the image in the Graphics option on the General tab in theControl Properties dialog.

8Form controls reference | 7

Form Controls toolbar
13

Formatted Field

A control allowing numeric formatting options. For example, you
can set maximum and minimum values for the number entered, orthe number type (decimal places, scientific, currency).

14

Date Field

Stores a date. You need to configure the earliest and latest dates
the field will accept, the default date, and the date format. You can
add a spinner.

15

Numerical Field

Displays a number. You need to specify formatting, maximum,
minimum and default values. You can add a spinner.

16

Group BoxGroup boxes have two different uses.
If wizards are on, creating a group box launches the Group
Element wizard. This creates a group of options buttons (in which
only one may be selected at a time). In most cases, using a groupbox is the best way to create a set of option buttons.
If wizards are off, a group box is simply a visual box to group
together different controls. It has no effect on the way the controls
operate.

17

Time Field

Works like a date field but specifies a time.

18

Currency Field

Works like a numeric field; additionally you can add a currency
symbol.

Pattern Field

Useful when the form links into a data source. Specify an Edit
Mask to restrict what a user can enter into the field. Specify aLiteral Mask to restrict which data is displayed from the data
source.

20

Table Control

Table controls are only useful with a data source. If no data sourceis specified, you will be prompted to choose one in the Table
Element Wizard. You then pick the fields to display and, when
design mode is off, the data appears in the table. The table also
includes controls to step through the records.
Records can be added, deleted, and modified in the table.

21

Navigation Bar

A navigation bar is the same as the Form Navigation toolbar (View> Toolbars > Form Navigation), but can be placed anywhere in
the document and be resized.

22

Image Control

Only useful when the form is connected to a data source and afield in the data source exists that can hold images. You can add
new images to the database or retrieve and display images from it.

23

File Selection

Allows a user to select a file, either by typing the path and namedirectly or by clicking on a Browse button and choosing the filefrom a dialog.

24

Spin Button

Allows form users to choose a number by cycling through the list of
numbers. You can specify maximum, minimum, default, and thestep between numbers.
This control is not commonly used in Writer.

25

Scrollbar

Creates a scrollbar, with a number of options to define the exact
appearance. This control is not commonly used in Writer.

19

8 | Chapter 18 Forms

Form Design Toolbar

Figure 3: Form Design toolbar
Form Design toolbar
1

AnchorAny form control can be anchored to page, paragraph, orcharacter and also anchored as a character.

2

Align

Disabled unless the control is anchored as a character. You canalign a control in different ways, for example so the top or bottomof the control lines up with the top or bottom of the text.

3

Bring to Front

Places the control on top of any other controls or text.

4

Forward One

Brings the control one level up in the stack.

5

Back One

Sends the control one level down in the object stack.

6

Send to Back

Sends the control to the bottom of the stack.

7

To Foreground

Moves the object in front of the text.

8

To Background

Moves the object behind the text.

9

SelectSelects a form control to perform some other action on it.

10

Design Mode

Toggles between design mode on (to edit forms) and designmode off (to use forms).

11

Control Properties

Launches form control properties dialog. This dialog can be kept
open whiles different controls are selected.

12Form Properties

Launches form properties dialog, which controls properties for theform as a whole, such as which data source it connects to.

Form Navigator

Displays all the forms and controls in the current document andallows you to edit and delete them easily.
If you use the Form Navigator, give your controls names (in theproperties dialog) so you can tell which is which in the navigator.

14

Add Field

Useful only if you have specified a data source for the form.
Otherwise, an empty box opens.
If you have specified a data source, Add Field opens a list of all
the fields in the specified table, which you can then drag and drop
onto the page. The fields are placed on the page with the name of
the field before them.

15

Activation Order

Allows you to specify the order in which focus shifts between
controls. You can test the order by leaving design mode and using
Tab to switch between the controls.

16

Open in Design
Mode

Opens the current form in design mode (to edit the form rather
than entering data into it).

17

Automatic Control
Focus

If activated, focus is set to the first form control.

13

Form controls reference | 9

Form Design toolbar

18

Position and Size

Opens the Position and Size dialog, where you can type precise
values, rather than dragging the control. You can also lock thesize or position so they do not get changed accidentally. For
some controls, you can rotate and set the slant and corner radius.

19

Display Grid

Displays a grid of dots on the page, to help you line up controls.

20

Snap to Grid

When a control is brought close to a grid point or line, it will snap
to the grid. This makes it is easier to line up controls.

21

Guides when
MovingWhen a control is being moved, lines extend from the control
horizontally and vertically to help you position it accurately.

Example: a simple form
In this example, we will create the form shown in Figure 4. If you follow the given steps, your form
will look similar to this one.

Figure 4: Completed form

Create the document
Open a new document (File > New > Text Document) and type any text to be included (seeFigure 5 for an example). It is a good idea to sketch the final result to use as a guide when
designing the form, although it can easily be changed later.

Figure 5: Initial document without form controls
10 | Chapter 18 Forms

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.

•

Gender is three option buttons: male, female, or other; user can select one.

•

Favorite shape is a list of options; user can select one.

•All shapes you like is a series of check boxes; user can select one or more.

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 icon to activate them.
3) Click the Text Box icon, then click in the document and drag the shape of the Name text
box to approximately the size you want. Drag it to line up with the Name: label.
4) Make sure Toggle Form Control Wizards is OFF. Click the Option Button icon. Clickand drag to create three option buttons near the Gender: label in the document. We will
configure these in the next section.
5) Click the List Box icon and draw a list box by Favourite shape: in the document. This will
just be an empty pane for now.
6) Click the Check Box icon and create four check boxes by All shapes you like, side byside across the page.
Your document should now look something like Figure 6. Do not worry if the controls are not lined
up well; we will fix this later.

Figure 6: Document with form controls

Configure form controls
Text box
No further configuration is required for the Name field, but you may wish to change the height orwidth of the field, its background color, or other formatting. If so:
1) Be sure Design Mode is on and Wizards are off.
2) Double-click on the Name field to open the Properties: Text Box dialog (Figure 7).
3) On the General tab, scroll down (or expand the dialog by dragging the bottom edgedown) to find the Width and Height properties. Change these as needed.
Example: a simple form | 11

4) You can then close the dialog or leave it open while you configure the other controls.

Figure 7: Changing the width and height of a text box

Option buttons
The Gender option buttons need to be configured to allow only one of the three to be selected.
You can do this in two ways: using individual option buttons as described here, or using a GroupBox (see page 14).
1) Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF.
2) If the Properties dialog is open, click once on the first option button to change the dialog
to Properties: Option Button. If the dialog is not open, double-click the first option button.
In the Properties dialog (Figure 8), on the General tab, type Male in the Label field andGender in the Group name field.
3) Repeat for the other two options, using Female and Other, respectively, for the Label and
Gender for the Group name. (Grouping allows only one option to be selected at a time.)

Figure 8: Specifying label and group names for an option button
If the Option Buttons are too far apart, click on each in turn and drag it to the left or right.
If the Option Buttons are not lined up neatly, do this:1) Click the Select button on the Form Controls toolbar and draw a box around the three
option button controls with the mouse to select all of them (Figure 9).
2) Right-click and choose Align > Top in the context menu. Figure 10 shows the result.

12 | Chapter 18 Forms

Figure 9: Select controls and align to top

Figure 10: Result of action to align controls

List box
To add the list of choices to the list box, do this:1) Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF. Double-click the List Box control toopen the control’s Properties dialog (Figure 12). Select the General tab.
2) Scroll down to find the List Entries text input box. Type the names of the shapes (Circle,
Triangle, Square, Pentagon) one at a time. After each, press Shift+Enter, as shown in
Figure 11.

Figure 11: Entering the terms for a list
When you click away from the List entries box in the dialog, you should see a line saying"Circle";"Triangle";"Square";"Pentagon" (Figure 12).

Example: a simple form | 13

Figure 12: Properties dialog for a list box

Check boxes
To give the check boxes names:
1) Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF. Double-click the first Check Box
control.
2) In the Properties: Check Box dialog (Figure 13), change the text in the Label field toCircle and press Enter. The cursor moves to the next line, and the label on the check box
in the document changes immediately.

Figure 13: Top part of Properties dialog for a check box3) Click each of the other three check boxes in turn. Change the text in the Label text input
box in the Properties dialog to Triangle, Square, and Pentagon in turn.
4) Close the Properties dialog.
5) Turn Design Mode off.
You have now completed the form, which should look something like Figure 4 on page 10.

Group box
As an alternative to creating individual option buttons for Gender (described on page 12), you
can use a Group Box to insert a group of option buttons. Group boxes stack the selections one
under the other (as shown in Figure 17 on page 16); individual buttons can be moved into any
arrangement you prefer (we arranged them horizontally on page 12).
To use a Group Box instead of individual Option Buttons:
1) Be sure both Design Mode and Wizards are ON. Click the Group Box icon and draw abox next to the Gender: label. The Group Element Wizard (Figure 14) opens
automatically.
14 | Chapter 18 Forms

2) Type Male in the box on the left. Click the >> button to move it to the Option fields box on
the right.
3) Repeat for Female and Other. The Wizard should now look like Figure 15. Click Next>.
4) On the next page of the Wizard (Figure 16), choose No, one particular field is notgoing to be selected as a default. Click Next>.
5) On the next page, make no changes. Click Next>.
6) On the next page, delete the words “Group Box” from the caption area. If we did not havea Gender: label already in the form, you might want to type Gender as the caption.
7) Click Finish. The survey form should look like Figure 17.

Figure 14: Inserting a Group Box using the Group Element Wizard

Figure 15: Wizard after adding names for the option fields

Figure 16: Choosing to not have a default option

Example: a simple form | 15

Figure 17: Final group box in survey form

Finishing touches
The form is complete, but you are free to make further changes to the document. If you plan tosend this out to other people to complete, you probably want to make the document read-only sothat users would be able to fill in the form but not make any other changes to the document.
To make the document read-only, select File > Properties, select the Security tab and enable
Open file read-only.

Note
If the document is read-only, anyone filling in the form will need to use File > Saveas to save the document.

Accessing data sources
The most common use for a form is to input information into a database. For example, you candesign a form that others can use to enter information into a contacts database. Because it ispart 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 reading andwriting; other data sources (such as spreadsheets) are read-only.

Tip
To see the list of supported data source types for your operating system, choose File
> New > Database. On the first page of the Database Wizard, select Connect to an
existing database and then open the drop-down list.
For the purpose of this chapter, we assume you have previously created a database or otherdata source and registered it for use with Writer. (Chapter 14, Mail Merge, describes how tocreate and register a database.)

Creating a form for data entry
Once a database is registered with LibreOffice, follow these steps to link a form to the 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 and Form Design toolbars.
4) Click the Design Mode icon to put the document into design mode.
5) Click the Text Box icon. Click in the document and drag to create a text box for the firstform field.
16 | Chapter 18 Forms

6) Click the Text Box icon 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. To link theform with the data source you registered:
1) Click the Form Properties icon in the Form Design toolbar, or right-click any of the fields
you inserted and select Form Properties, to open the Form Properties dialog (Figure 18).

Figure 18: Form properties, connecting to a data source2) In the Form Properties dialog, choose 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.
3) For each form control in turn, click the control to select it (small green boxes appear
around it), then launch the Properties dialog: either right-click and select Control
Properties or click the Control Properties icon on the Form Controls toolbar.
4) In the Properties dialog, click the Data tab (Figure 19). If you set up the form correctly, theData 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.

Figure 19: Form control properties, Data tab5) Repeat for each control in turn until every control that should be assigned to a field has
been assigned.

Accessing data sources | 17

Caution
If you created a database in LibreOffice Base and your Primary Key field had Auto
Value set to Yes, that field does not need to be part of the form. If Auto Value was set
to No, you will have to include it and users will need to enter a unique value into thatfield whenever they make a new entry—not something that is recommended.

Entering data into a form
Once you have created a form and tied it to a database, use it to enter data into the database or
modify data already there:
1) Make sure that the form is not in design mode. (In the Form Controls toolbar, click the
Design Mode icon. When design mode is off, most of the buttons on the toolbar will begrayed out.)
2) Make sure that the Form Navigation toolbar is on (View > Toolbars > Form Navigation).
This toolbar normally appears at the bottom of the workspace.
Figure 20: Form Navigation toolbar
3) If there is existing data in the data source, use the control buttons on the Form Navigation
toolbar to look at different records. To amend data in a record, edit the values in the form.
To submit the changes, press Enter 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, enter information by typing into the fields of the form. To
submit the new record, press Enter with the cursor in the last field.
5) Other functions can be performed from the Form Navigation toolbar, including deleting arecord and adding a new record.

Note
If a user tries to fill in the form and receives the error “Attempt to insert null into a
non-nullable column”, then the form designer should go back to the database andconfirm that the Primary Key field has the Auto Value set to Yes. This error will
prevent the form user from saving the records.

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 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 the form control, select Control
Properties in the context menu, and click the Events tab (Figure 21).

18 | Chapter 18 Forms

Figure 21: Control properties, Events tab3) Click the browse icon by any event to open the Assign Action dialog (Figure 22).
4) Click the Macro button and select the macro from the list in the Macro Selector dialog(not shown). You return to the Assign action dialog. Repeat as needed, then click OK toclose the dialog.
Macros can also be assigned to events relating to the form as a whole. To do this, right-click aform control in the document, select Form Properties, and click the Events tab.

Figure 22: Assign action dialog

Advanced form customization | 19

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 thedocument read-only by choosing File > Properties > Security and selecting Open file readonly.

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 a form control and select Form Properties in the context menu. On
the Data tab of the Form Properties dialog 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 theaccess users have to the data source.
Individual fields can also be protected. This might be useful if you wanted a user to be able tomodify 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 the form control within the
document and select Control from the context menu. Select the General tab (Figure 23) and set
Read-only to Yes.

Figure 23: Data Properties of a form

20 | Chapter 18 Forms

Form control formatting options
You can customize the way form controls look and behave in a number of ways. These are allaccessed in design mode. Right-click the form control, select Control Properties in the context
menu and select the General tab in the Properties dialog.
•

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 labelsthat 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.

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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.

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

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

•

You can use other formatting controls such as background color, 3-D look, text
formatting, scroll bars, and borders to further define how the control appears.

Advanced form customization | 21