[libreoffice-users] Base: invisible subform - what to do?

It's obvious that when initially creating a form you have the option of 
adding a subform, but what about later?

Where I come from (MSAcess) a subform is a control that goes on a main 
form. It is linked to a table that is linked to the main table. There is 
a subform control icon that can be clicked to cause the subform control 
to appear on the main form. Some properties twiddling and you're in 
business. Simple, obvious, and it works. In LO, things are considerably 
different, it appears.

I have a main form and I now want to add a subform to it. After two 
hours of frustration, I have managed to create a subform. This whole 
topic is given a minimal, rather confused treatment in the LO Help 
document, and none whatsoever in "Getting Started with LibreOffice 3.3". 
It seems that creating the subform is enough. Regrettably, I actually 
want to SEE and USE it. I cannot find any help on that part, and it 
isn't happening automatically.

In the LO Help document (F1), looking in the index under "subforms, 
description", then clicking Display, takes you to an article on Data 
(huh?). Well into the article, we're reading about master and slave 
fields. THEN, we come to "What is a subform?" This is nuts. Why take 
this up now, after having written about it for paragraphs? I don't see 
how this mess could have gotten through editing.

Well into this paragraph, I read "The user of your document will not see 
that a form has subforms. The user only sees a document in which data is 
entered or where existing data is displayed." This is more than nuts. 
Why have a subform then make it totally obscure? I can see this 
happening if your data source is a query which displays a one to one 
master-slave relationship, but what do we do with one-to-many relationships?

The remainder of this paragraph makes sense only if we are considering a 
one-to-one master-slave relationship. What do we do with multiple 
"slaves" (man, this terminology is grating on me... I want to free those 
slaves)?

What I NEED is a control that looks like a spreadsheet - multiple 
records (if they exist), with multiple fields. It will be linked to the 
main table, fields form which are already on my form. I can find NO way 
to create this, yet it as to has to be possible. This sort of thing is 
done all the time.

More specifically, since my main form's Form Navigator clearly SHOWS the 
subform, and I can display its properties (and thus verify that it's 
properly linked to its source table AND the main table, what I need to 
know is how to attach it to a control that I can SEE on the main form - 
and it need to be a "grid" control (capable of showing multiple records, 
all linked to the current main table record).

I'm absolutely baffled as to why this basic operation is so obscure with 
LO (or if it's not, why I cannot see how to do it!!). Main table - 
detail forms are basic, are then not?

Any help offered will be much appreciated.





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