| How to Make Graphic Organizers for Student Research Projects |  | Creating DB Forms
Open AppleWorks Database
The Define Database Field window will open right away.
Create the fields. Naming is not critical. I usually just number them (1,2,3,.....) The default field type is text. If you want the students to collect images in the field change it to multimedia. Remember to change it back to text when you create the next field. Fields can be added or the type changed later.
Click done when you have created enough fields. Remember to make enough for every box the students will enter information into. This includes sources, name, teacher, etc.
The form will be created and look quite plain. Time to fix that.
Go to Layout then to Layout. This is the edit mode. Any changes you want to make to your form have to be done in this mode. When the students use the form, they will be in Browse mode. This mode allows them to enter data but not make any changes to the form.
The first thing I do in Layout mode is select all the field labels (the numbers) and delete them. Then I click on the little box called Body and drag it to the bottom of the page. This is how you set the size of your form. I choose to make them the full page. Now select the fields (command-A) and move them to the bottom of the page to give you room to work. Click on the text tool and add the text to your form; title, field labels, and anything else you want to have on your form. You can import graphics too. Add text and lines and images just as you would in a Draw document.
Use the line tool to section your form or make it look any way you want. Make the text boxes as big as possible to hold as much information as the kids will need to do a good job. The size of the image fields (multimedia type) isnt too important because these are really just holders. The image will go back to its original size if it is moved to another draw, presentation, or word processing document. You probably will want to put a border around the fields so they show up on the form when seen in Browse mode. You can do this one by one or select them all then click on the border edit tool on the bottom (above the T) then select the size of the line (usually 1 or 2 pt.).
As you work on your design, switch to Browse mode every so often to see how it looks.
This is important: When you are done and before saving the form for the last time, make sure you switch it from Layout mode to Browse. (Layout > Browse).
Click on the documents below to download a few examples to your computer desktop.
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State_2.cwk
whale_facts.cwk
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