Forms Expert - Adding an image field to a form in Commence

A somewhat under-used (and mostly forgotten) feature of Commence is the ability to add an image field to your forms. 

With more and more people using digital cameras and scanners, capturing images is now easier than ever before. In addition, most image formats such as bmp, gif, jpeg and png can be inserted into your Commence forms, making it easy to use existing images without modifications.

Having an image on a form may at first seem like something you would hardly every use, however when you start thinking about it, there are quite a few situations where this is really useful.  Examples of where images are extremely useful include: 

• Including a picture of each product you sell, 
• Having a photo of each of the candidates who is applying for a job, as we have done with Recruit Express, 
• Incorporating an image of your personal signature that can be attached to letters and  emails,
• and having a virtual business card with all your of contact details that you can send at the bottom of your email messages.

You will need Author permissions to be able to save any changes you make to your database.

To set up the image field in Commence:

1. In Commence, go to Customize > Database, then click on the Category Tab.

2. From the list, select the category you want to add the field to and click on the Edit button. 

3. Then to add a new field click on the Add button, set the Field Label to something useful like "Signature", "Business Card", "Logo" or "Photo". Then set Field Type to be Image and leave Mandatory checkbox unselected. 

4. Click on OK and Save.

Viewing and customising the size of image field:

If you added the image field to the "Contact" category then you should now see the image field appear when you open/add a contact detail form. If you added it to another category, such as "Employee", then you should see the image field appear when you open the Employee detail form.

By default, Commence will insert a square image field at the bottom of the form. However unless you happen to have a square image, the image field will need to be set to a more appropriate size. To change the size of the field:

1. Open up the detail form with the image field on it. 

2. Move the mouse pointer to anywhere in that form. Then right click and select Design View.

3. Right click on the image field, then select 'Field Options'. The image properties dialog box will appear, where you can set the Height, Width, Image alignment, and Image style. 

4. Click OK and then Save to make your changes permanent.

Inserting the Image into the Commence Image field:

1. Open an imaging program such as Microsoft Paint or Microsoft Photo Editor.

2. From the File menu, select Open, and then find the image you want to use.
Note: by default, MS Paint only shows bitmap (.bmp) files, so if you want to open other types of files (like jpeg, gif etc.), then make sure that the Files of Type setting, located at bottom of the open dialog box, is set to 'All Picture Files'.

3. Once the image opens up, from the menu select Edit > Select All  (or Control A from the keyboard). This will put a dotted border around the image to show it has been selected

4. Now from the menu select Edit > Copy (or Control C from the keyboard). This will copy the image to the Windows clipboard. 

5. In Commence, open up the detail form that contains the image field, and then click on the image field. Hold down the Shift and Insert keys to paste the image into the field.