Using the Form command

Use the Form command in the Forms group of the Ribbon to automatically create a new form based on a table or query selected in the Navigation pane.

To create a form based on tblProducts, follow these steps:

1. Select tblProducts in the Navigation pane.
2. Select the Create tab of the Ribbon.
3. Click the Form command in the Forms group. Access creates a new form containing all the fields from tblProducts displayed in Layout view, shown in Figure 17.2. Layout view lets you see the form's data while changing the layout of controls on the form. (The form shown in Figure 17.2 is included in the Chapter17.accdb example database as frmProducts_AutoForm.)

   

The new form is opened in Layout view, which is populated with controls, each of which is bound to a field in the underlying data source. Layout view gives you a good idea how the controls appear relative to one another, but it provides only limited ability to resize controls or move controls on the form. Right-click the form's title bar and select Design View to rearrange controls on the form.

The Form Design button in the Forms group also creates a new form, except that the form is not automatically bound to a table or query, no controls are added to the form's design surface, and the form is opened in Design view. Form Design is most useful when you're creating a new form that might not use all the fields in the underlying data source, and you want more control over control placement from the start.

Similarly, the Blank Form option opens a new empty form, but this time in Layout view. You add controls to the form's surface from the field list, but you have little control over control placement. The Blank Form option is most useful for quickly building a form with bound controls with little need for precise placement. A new blank form can be produced in less than a minute.

Using the Form Wizard

Use the Form Wizard command in the Forms group to create a form using a wizard. The Form Wizard visually walks you through a series of questions about the form that you want to create and then creates it for you automatically. The Form Wizard lets you select which fields you want on the form, the form layout (Columnar, Tabular, Datasheet, Justified), and the form title.

To start the Form Wizard based on tblCustomers, follow these steps:

1. Select tblCustomers in the Navigation pane.
2. Select the Create tab of the Ribbon.
3. Click the Form Wizard button in the Forms group. Access starts the Form Wizard, shown in Figure 17.3.

   

The wizard is initially populated with fields from tblCustomers, but you can choose another table or query with the Tables/Queries drop-down list above the field selection area. Use the buttons in the middle of the form to add and remove fields to the Available Fields and Selected Fields list boxes.

The series of buttons at the bottom of the form let you navigate through the other steps of the wizard. The types of buttons available here are common to most wizard dialog boxes:

• Cancel: Cancel the wizard without creating a form.
• Back: Return to the preceding step of the wizard.
• Next: Go to the next step of the wizard.
• Finish: End the wizard using the current selections and the default selections for any steps you don't complete.

Clicking Next opens the second wizard dialog box (shown in Figure 17.4) where you specify the overall layout and appearance of the new form.

The Columnar layout is the default layout, but you can also choose the Tabular, Datasheet, or Justified options. Clicking Next takes you to the last wizard dialog box (shown in Figure 17.5), where you provide a name for the new form.

Navigation forms

Navigation forms include a number of tabs that provide instant access to other forms in a form/subform arrangement. Subforms are forms that are displayed inside another form and are discussed later in this chapter. The Navigation button on the Ribbon offers a number of button placement options (shown in Figure 17.6). Horizontal Tabs is the default.

Selecting the Horizontal Tabs placement in the Navigation drop-down list opens the new navigation form in Design view (see Figure 17.7). The new form includes a row of tabs along the top and a large area under the tabs for embedding subforms. You type the tab's label (like Products) directly into the tab, or add it through the tab's Caption property. As you complete the tab's label, Access adds a new, blank tab to the right of the current tab.

In Figure 17.7, the Horizontal Tabs option was selected when choosing a navigation form template and a tab was named Products, which generates a new Add New tab. The alternatives to Horizontal Tabs (Vertical Tabs, Left, Vertical Tabs, Right, and so on) are shown in Figure 17.6.

The Product tab's Property Sheet (shown in Figure 17.8) includes the Navigation Target Name property for specifying the Access form to use as the tab's subform. Select a form from the drop-down list in the Navigation Target Name property, and Access creates the association to the subform for you.

The completed navigation form is shown in Figure 17.9. The auto-generated navigation form makes extravagant use of screen space. There are a number of things that could be done to enhance this form, such as removing the navigation form's header section and reducing the empty space surrounding the subform. frmProducts, shown in Figure 17.9, is included in the Chapter17.accdb example database.

Multiple-items forms

Click the More Forms button in the Forms group of the Ribbon and then click the Multiple Items button to create a tabular form based on a table or query selected in the Navigation pane. A tabular form is much like a datasheet, but it's much more attractive than a plain datasheet.

Because the tabular form is an Access form, you can convert the default text box controls on the form to combo boxes, list boxes, and other advanced controls. Tabular forms display multiple records at one time, which makes them very useful when you're reviewing or updating multiple records. To create a multiple-items form based on tblProducts, follow these steps:

1. Select tblProducts in the Navigation pane.
2. Select the Create tab on the Ribbon.
3. Click the More Forms button and click Multiple Items. Access creates a new multiple-items form based on tblProducts displayed in Layout view (as shown in Figure 17.10).

   

Split forms

Click the More Forms button in the Form group of the Ribbon and then click the Split Form button to create a split form based on a table or query selected in the Navigation pane. The split-form feature gives you two views of the data at the same time, letting you select a record from a datasheet in the lower section and edit the information in a form in the upper section.

To create a split form based on tblCustomers, follow these steps:

1. Select tblCustomers in the Navigation pane.
2. Select the Create tab of the Ribbon.
3. Click the More Forms button and click Split Form. Access creates a new split form based on tblCustomers displayed in Layout view (shown in Figure 17.11). Resize the form and use the splitter bar in the middle to make the lower section completely visible.

   

The Split Form Orientation property (on the Format tab of the form's Property Sheet) determines whether the datasheet is on the top, bottom, left, or right of the form area. The default is as shown in Figure 17.11, with the datasheet area on the bottom. frmCustomers_SplitForm (shown in Figure 17.11) is included in the Chapter17.accdb example database.

Datasheet forms

Click the More Forms button in the Forms group of the Ribbon and then click the Datasheet button to create a form that looks like a table or query's datasheet. A datasheet form is useful when you want to see the data in a row and column format, but you want to limit which fields are displayed and editable.

To create a datasheet form based on tblProducts, follow these steps:

1. Select tblProducts in the Navigation pane.
2. Select the Create tab of the Ribbon.
3. Click the More Forms button in the Forms group and then click Datasheet. You can view any form you create as a datasheet by selecting Datasheet View from the View drop-down menu on the Ribbon. A datasheet form appears in Datasheet View by default when you open it.

Using the Controls group

When you use the buttons in the Controls group to add a control, you decide which type of control to use for each field. The control you add is unbound (not attached to the data in a table field) and has a default name such as Text21 or Combo11. After you create the control, you decide what table field to bind the control to, enter text for the label, and set any properties. You'll learn more about setting properties later in this chapter.

You can add one control at a time using the Controls group. To create three different unbound controls, perform these steps:

1. With the form created earlier open in Design view, click the Text Box button in the Controls group.
2. Move the mouse pointer to the Form Design window, and click and drag the new control onto the form's surface in its initial size and position. Notice that a label control is added when you add a text box.
3. Click the Option button in the Controls group, and click and drag the new Option button onto the form's surface in its initial size and position.
4. Click the Check Box button in the Controls group and add it to the form, as you added the other controls. When you're done, your screen should resemble Figure 17.14.

   

Using the field list

The field list displays a list of fields from the table or query the form is based on. Open the field list by clicking the Add Existing Fields button in the Tools group on the Design tab of the Ribbon (refer to Figure 17.13).

If you created a form using a method that automatically binds the form to a table or query, the field list for that table or query will be displayed. For this example, we created a form using the Blank Form button, which does not automatically bind the form to a datasource. In this case, the field list only shows a Show All Tables link. Click the Show All Tables link to get a list of tables. Then click the plus sign next to tblProducts to show the fields in that table.

Drag Model from the field list and drop it onto the form to create a control bound to the Model field in tblProducts . You can select and drag fields one at a time or select multiple fields by using the Ctrl key or Shift key:

• To select multiple contiguous fields, hold down the Shift key and click the first and last fields that you want.
• To select multiple noncontiguous fields, hold down the Ctrl key and click each field that you want.

By default, the Field List appears docked on the right of the Access window. The Field List window is movable and resizable and displays a vertical scroll bar if it contains more fields than can fit in the window. Figure 17.15 shows the Field List undocked and moved on top of the form.

Most often, dragging a field from the Field List adds a bound text box to the Design window. If you drag a Yes/No field from the Field List window, Access adds a check box. Optionally, you can select the type of control by selecting a control from the Controls group and dragging the field to the Design window.

You gain several distinct advantages by dragging a field from the Field List window:

• The control is automatically bound to the field.
• Field properties inherit table-level formats, status bar text, and data validation rules and messages.
• The label control and label text are created with the field name as the caption.
• The label control is attached to the field control, so they move together.

Select and drag the Description, Category, RetailPrice, and Cost fields from the Field List window to the form, as shown in Figure 17.16. Double-clicking a field also adds it to the form.

You can see four new pairs of controls in the form's Design view—each pair consists of a label control and a text box control (Access attaches the label control to the text box automatically). You can work with these controls as a group or independently, and you can select, move, resize, or delete them. Notice that each control has a label with a caption matching the field name, and the text box control displays the bound field name used in the text box. If you want to resize just the control and not the label, you must work with the two controls (label and associated text box) separately. You'll learn about working with labels attached to controls later in this chapter.

Close the Field List by clicking the Add Existing Fields command in the Tools group of the Ribbon or by clicking the Close button on the Field List.

In the “Introducing Properties” section, later in this chapter, you learn how to change the control names, captions, and other properties. Using properties speeds the process of naming controls and binding them to specific fields. If you want to see the differences between bound and unbound controls, switch to Form view using the View command in the View group of the Ribbon. The Description, Category, RetailPrice, and Cost controls display data because they're bound to tblProducts. The other three controls don't display data because they aren't bound to any data source.

Selecting a single control

Select any individual control by clicking anywhere on the control. When you click a control, the sizing handles appear. If the control has an attached label, the move handle for the label also appears in the upper-left corner of the control. If you select a label control that is associated with another control, all the handles for the label control are displayed, and only the move handle appears in the associated control.

Selecting multiple controls

You select multiple controls in these ways:

• By clicking each control while holding down the Shift key
• By dragging the pointer through or around the controls that you want to select
• By clicking and dragging in the ruler to select a range of controls

Figure 17.17 shows the result of selecting the multiple bound controls graphically. When you select multiple controls by dragging the mouse, a rectangle appears as you drag the mouse. Be careful to drag the rectangle only through the controls you want to select. Any control you touch with the rectangle or enclose within it is selected. If you want to select labels only, make sure that the selection rectangle only touches the labels.

Deselecting controls

Deselect a control by clicking an unselected area of the form that doesn't contain a control. When you do so, the handles disappear from any selected control. Selecting another control also deselects a selected control.

Resizing a control

You resize controls using any of the smaller handles in the upper, lower, and right edges of the control. The sizing handles in the control corners let you drag the control larger or smaller in both width and height—and at the same time. Use the handles in the middle of the control sides to size the control larger or smaller in one direction only. The top and bottom handles control the height of the control; the left and right handles change the control's width.

When the mouse pointer touches a corner sizing handle of a selected control, the pointer becomes a diagonal double arrow. You can then drag the sizing handle until the control is the desired size. If the mouse pointer touches a side handle in a selected control, the pointer changes to a horizontal or vertical double-headed arrow. Figure 17.19 shows the Description control after being resized. Notice the double-headed arrow in the corner of the Description control.

When you double-click on any of the sizing handles, Access resizes a control to best fit the text contained in the control. This feature is especially handy if you increase the font size and then notice that the text is cut off either at the bottom or to the right. For label controls, note that this best-fit sizing adjusts the size vertically and horizontally, though text controls are resized only vertically. This is because when Access is in Form Design mode, it can't predict how much of a field to display—the field name and field contents can be radically different. Sometimes, Access doesn't correctly resize the label and you must manually change its size.

Sizing controls automatically

The Size/Space drop-down on the Size and Ordering group of the Arrange tab of the Ribbon has several commands that help the arrangement of controls:

• To Fit: Adjusts control height for the font of the text they contain
• To Tallest: Makes selected controls the height of the tallest selected control
• To Shortest: Makes selected controls the height of the shortest selected control
• To Grid: Moves all sides of selected controls in or out to meet the nearest points on the grid
• To Widest: Makes selected controls the width of the widest selected control
• To Narrowest: Makes selected controls the height of the narrowest selected control

Moving a control

After you select a control, you can easily move it, using any of these methods:

• Click the control and hold down the mouse button; the cursor changes to a four-directional arrow. Drag the mouse to move the control to a new location.
• Click once to select the control and move the mouse over any of the highlighted edges; the cursor changes to a four-directional arrow. Drag the mouse to move the control to a new location.
• Select the control and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the control. Using this technique, a control changes by only 1 pixel at a time (or moves to the nearest grid line if Snap to Grid is selected in the Size/Space gallery on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon).

Figure 17.20 shows a label control that has been separately moved to the top of the text box control.

Press Esc before you release the mouse button to cancel a moving or a resizing operation. After a move or resizing operation is complete, click the Undo button on the Quick Access toolbar to undo the changes, if needed.

Aligning controls

You might want to move several controls so that they're all aligned. The Sizing and Ordering group's Align gallery on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon contains the following alignment commands:

• To Grid: Aligns the top-left corners of the selected controls to the nearest grid point
• Left: Aligns the left edge of the selected controls with the leftmost selected control
• Right: Aligns the right edge of the selected controls with the rightmost selected control
• Top: Aligns the top edge of the selected controls with the topmost selected control
• Bottom: Aligns the bottom edge of the selected controls with the bottommost selected control

You can align any number of selected controls by selecting an align command. When you choose one of the align commands, Access uses the control that's the closest to the desired selection as the model for the alignment. For example, suppose that you have three controls and you want to left-align them. They're aligned on the basis of the control farthest to the left in the group of the three controls.

Figure 17.21 shows several sets of controls. The first set of controls is not aligned. The label controls in the middle set of controls have been left-aligned while the text box controls in the right-side set have been right-aligned.

Each type of alignment must be done separately. In this example, you can left-align all the labels or right-align all the text boxes at once.

By default, Access displays a series of small dots across the entire surface of a form while it's in Design view. The grid can assist you in aligning controls. Hide or display the grid by selecting the Grid command from the Size/Space gallery under the Sizing & Ordering group on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon. You can also hide or display the ruler using the Ruler command in the same gallery.

Use the Snap to Grid command in the Size/Space gallery to align controls to the grid as you draw or place them on a form. This also aligns existing controls to the grid when you move or resize them.

As you move or resize existing controls, Access lets you move only from grid point to grid point. When Snap to Grid is off, Access ignores the grid and lets you place a control anywhere on the form or report.

The Sizing & Ordering group on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon contains commands to adjust spacing between controls. The spacing commands adjust the distance between controls on the basis of the space between the first two selected controls. If the controls are across the screen, use horizontal spacing; if they're down the screen, use vertical spacing. The spacing commands are:

• Equal Horizontal: Makes the horizontal space between selected controls equal. You must select three or more controls in order for this command to work.
• Increase Horizontal: Increases the horizontal space between selected controls by one grid unit.
• Decrease Horizontal: Decreases the horizontal space between selected controls by one grid unit.
• Equal Vertical: Makes the vertical space between selected controls equal. You must select three or more controls in order for this command to work properly.
• Increase Vertical: Increases the vertical space between selected controls by one grid unit.
• Decrease Vertical: Decreases the vertical space between selected controls by one grid unit.

Modifying the appearance of a control

To modify the appearance of a control, select the control and click commands that modify that control, such as the options in the Font or Controls group. Follow these steps to change the text color and font of the Description label:

1. Click the Description label on the form.
2. In the Font group on the Format tab of the Ribbon, change Font Size to 14, click the Bold button, and change Font Color to blue.
3. Resize the Description label so the larger text fits. You can double-click any of the sizing handles to autosize the label.

To modify the appearance of multiple controls at once, select the controls and click commands to modify the controls, such as commands in the Font or Controls group. To change the text color and font of the Category, Retail Price, and Cost labels and text boxes, follow these steps:

1. Select the three labels and three text boxes by dragging a selection box through them.
2. In the Font group on the Format tab of the Ribbon, change the Font Size to 14, click the Bold button, and change Font Color to blue.
3. Resize the labels and text boxes so the larger text fits. You can double-click any of the sizing handles to autosize the controls. As you click the commands, the controls' appearances change to reflect the new selections (shown in Figure 17.22). The fonts in each control increase in size, become bold, and turn blue. Any changes you make apply to all selected controls.

When multiple controls are selected, you can also move the selected controls together. When the cursor changes to the four-directional arrow, click and drag to move the selected controls. You can also change the size of all the controls at once by resizing one of the controls in the selection. All the selected controls increase or decrease by the same number of units.

Grouping controls

If you routinely change properties of multiple controls, you might want to group them together. To group controls together, select the controls by holding down the Shift key and clicking them or dragging the selection box through them. After the desired controls are selected, select the Group command from the Size/Space gallery on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon. When one control in a group is selected, all controls in that group are automatically selected, as shown in Figure 17.23.

Double-click a control to select just one control in a group. After a single control in the group is selected, you can click any other control to select it. To reselect the entire group, click on an empty area of the form, and then click on any control in the group.

To resize the entire group, put your mouse on the side you want to resize. After the double arrow appears, click and drag until you reach the desired size. Every control in the group changes in size. To move the entire group, click and drag the group to its new location. With grouped controls, you don't have to select all the controls every time you change something about them.

To remove a group, select the group by clicking any field inside the group, and then select the Ungroup command from the Size/Space gallery of the Arrange tab of the Ribbon.

Changing a control's type

Although there are times you may want to use a check box to display a Boolean (yes/no) data type, there are other ways to display the value, such as a toggle button, as shown in Figure 17.24. A toggle button is raised if it's true and depressed (or at least very unhappy) if it's false.

Use these steps to turn a check box into a toggle button:

1. Select the Before label control (just the label control, not the check box).
2. Press Delete to delete the label control because it isn't needed.
3. Right-click the check box, and choose Change To Toggle Button from the pop-up menu.
4. Resize the toggle button and click inside it to get the blinking cursor; then type After on the button as its caption (shown on the right of Figure 17.24).

Copying a control

You can create copies of any control by copying it to the Clipboard and then pasting the copies where you want them. If you have a control for which you've entered many properties or specified a certain format, you can copy it and revise only the properties (such as the control's name and bound field name) to make it a different control. This capability is useful with a multiple-page form when you want to display the same values on different pages and in different locations, or when copying a control from one form to another.

Deleting a control

You can delete a control simply by selecting it in the form's Design view and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. The control and any attached labels will disappear. You can bring them back by immediately selecting Undo from the Quick Access toolbar (or using the keyboard shortcut for Undo, Ctrl+Z). You can also select Cut from the Clipboard group on the Home tab of the Ribbon, or Delete from the Records group on the Home tab of the Ribbon.

You can delete more than one control at a time by selecting multiple controls and pressing Delete. You can delete an entire group of controls by selecting the group and pressing Delete. If you have a control with an attached label, you can delete only the label by clicking the label itself and then selecting one of the delete methods. If you select the control, both the control and the label are deleted.

To delete only the label of the Description control, follow the next set of steps (this example assumes that you have the Description text box control in your Form Design window):

1. Select the Description label control only.
2. Press Delete to remove the label from the form.

Reattaching a label to a control

Later in this chapter, in the “Naming control labels and their captions” section, you'll learn about the special relationship between a control and its label. By default, Access controls include a label when the control is added to a form; this label moves around with the control as you reposition the control on the form. The “Naming control labels and their captions” section describes these behaviors and how to work with control labels. If you accidentally delete a label from a control, you can reattach it. To create and then reattach a label to a control, follow these steps:

1. Click the Label button on the Controls group.
2. Place the mouse pointer in the Form Design window. The mouse pointer becomes a capital A.
3. Click and hold down the mouse button where you want the control to begin; drag the mouse to size the control.
4. Type Description and click outside the control.
5. Select the Description label control.
6. Select Cut from the Clipboard group on the Home tab of the Ribbon.
7. Select the Description text box control.
8. Select Paste from the Clipboard group on the Home tab of the Ribbon to attach the label control to the text-box control.

Another way to attach a label to a control is to click the informational icon next to the label, shown in Figure 17.25. This informational icon lets you know that this label is unassociated with a control. Select the Associate Label with a Control command from the menu, and then select the control you want to associate the label with.