Inserting contents of text boxes into database?

[PaulBinCT]

First of all, I'll a real beginner so please excuse any incorrect terminology or other signs of stupidity...

I'm trying to write my first Windows app. This is a system for tracking tool inventory for large contractors that have multiple crews. I have tables for things like: Inventory items, manufacturers, assigned users. I also created a whole bunch of forms for things like entering new tools, manufacturers, and assigned users. Each of these forms has buttons for example when a new entry is made to "Add this tool to inventory". I'd rather, if possible, not use the "prepackaged" views for my forms such as grid or detail view. In addition, I'd rather not use the menu strip for the navigator to do things like add the new record. For the life of me, in spite of watching a dozen or so MS videos, and looking through 2 books as well as Googling, I can't find any reference for doing this.

Example: I fill in a form for a new manufacturer with name, address, phone. I have a corresponding table with those fields. I have the above referenced button that should write this entry into my dataset and then resolve it back to the database. Ummmmmmmm... how?

Lastly...if I haven't exhausted your collective patience... In an ideal world I'd like the "name" field in the above case (for instance) to incorporate an autocomplete so that if the manufacturer was already in the table, it would appear as typing begins, both to avoid duplication and to allow changes of addresss, etc.

Sighhhhhhhhh... much obliged for any help!

Paul

(Edit: Sorry, I'm sure I should have mentioned I'm using VS2008, so I'm doing this in VB2008 and SQL Server 2008)