Canvas Apps Controls

Edit vs Display – Which is the better form?

Forms in Power Apps
Forms in Power Apps

Introduction

Forms are one of the most commonly used controls. They are used to view, edit, or create records. There are two types:

  1. Edit: used to view, edit, and create records. (Source: Microsoft Docs)
  2. Display: used to view records. (Source: Microsoft Docs)

As with anything in life, there are options. And when you have options, there are some that are better than others! So which of these two is better?

Tip - Edit form is the winner!

In this battle, the clear winner is the edit form. Now you may ask why? Well, it can do what a display form can and much more.

So how do you make an edit form perform all the 3 tasks? To do that, make use of the DefaultMode property to change its mode to view, edit, or create a new record.

To illustrate this, here is a quick demo:

Edit vs Display form
Edit vs Display form

As a side note, wherever possible, avoid using forms as customizing their look and feel can be very painful. As an alternate to that, use isolated controls and then submit data using the Patch function (click here to learn more about the Patch function).

Stay tuned for the remaining 21 tips!

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