What’s the Best Way to Create a Form?

With the Office applications, you can create many different forms and use them in widely varying ways. In Microsoft Access, a form is an online document you can use to enter, edit, or view data. In other Office applications, a form is a framework for a document you use repeatedly, for example, an order form or expense report.

In your work, you may be creating your own forms already. If you open an existing document, save it with a different file name, and fill in information such as expenses or customer data, you are using the document as a form. Use the following table to decide which use of forms is closest to the work you want to do.

If you want to	Use this application	See
Create a form that does not require online calculation or entry into a database for print, network, or the Web	Microsoft Word	Create an Online or Printed Form in Word
Create a form for entering and calculating worksheet data	Microsoft Excel	Create a Form for Online Invoices
Create a form for entering, editing, and storing data, or for viewing data in a database	Microsoft Access	Create a Great-Looking Product Form
Create an e-mail form for entering personal data or for storing data received electronically from your workgroup	Microsoft Outlook	Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit, Microsoft Press http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/ Building Microsoft Outlook 97 Applications, Microsoft Press