form design to take in a lot of user information

[fguihen]

i have to design a form to take in a lot of data. rather than have a huge form with a scroll bar and tons of text boxes, i was thinking of two better options:

 

1) use a tab control and spread the information gathering controls out over a number of tabs

 

2) have a next button on the bottom of each form and have the controls spread over a number of forms.

 

i think idea 2 is more user friendly, but if anyone has any better ideas it would be great. thanks all

[Cags]

Generally speaking if the data will always be entered in the same logical order the best option would be to use the next button idea as it is more user friendly. Data that could be input in any order would be better suited to be displayed in tabs allowing the user to easily switch.

 

I notice from your post you were planning on using multiple forms with the next button option. I personally find an easier way of doing this is using panels. And having next / back buttons call the BringToFront() method of the relevant panel. Whether this is the best method I don't know, but its the way I have found easiest in the Past. Obviously an easier option is to use a tab control that allows you to not draw the tab section, but I don't believe this is possible with the standard version.