Source
Various customers, enterprises

Category
Forms/Queries

Product Requirement 
Easy creation of forms for Data Entry.

Customer Need/Problem
OpenOffice.org needs an ability to easily create and modify forms for data
entry. Easy to create and modify db, forms, queries, access from other sources,
store as relational db for single or small work group.

Comment
fs@openoffice.org:  IMO, the priority of this should be higher. Forms are
somewhat counter-intuitive currently, and addressing this is more important than
for instance addressing item Database-15
mmp@openoffice.org: raised prio from 4 to 3

Eng Effort
-

Eng Owner
Frank Schoenheit

Product Concept
- We will create a standalone database application, with an own file format,
embedding everything the user expects from a file-based database (actually
exception the data itself, but including forms, reports, queries, and
information how to access the data)

- Additionally, we will address a lot of concerns people currently have with
forms with small but highly visible changes, which would make the user more feel
like she is working with a real form designer (as in competing applications),
than with an application which just by accident supports some form-like
functionality (which is the current state in OOo). For instance, when opening or
creating forms from within the database application (as opposed to File|New|Text
Document), the user interface will be pre-configured so that all form-design
relevant tools are initially accessible.

- Yet more additionally, OOo lacks some of the features which form controls in
competing applications provide, and which users of competing applications are
used to. We believe that with a set of changes which themselves are small and
self-contained, we could enhance the form controls functionality in OOo a lot,
so that users migrating to OOo do feel more at home in SO/OOo than they do
currently. These changes would include some small new control types (such as
scrollbars), and new properties to better customize the existing controls. The
latter is also and especially important for importing Word documents which
currently can contain functionality which cannot be simulated in SO/OOo Writer.

- The property browser will be re-fitted with an basic mode, which offers only
the most often used properties to the user, in a way which is much easier
comprehensible than the current pure listing of technical termini.

Related items:
Database-4, Database-1, Database-11

Functional Specification
http://specs.openoffice.org/database_access/