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Form Design View Basics | CustomGuide
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Form Design View Basics

How to Use Form Design View in Access

Form Design View Basics

Don't let Design View scare you. It looks more complicated than it really is. Think of the form as your canvas and the control buttons as paintbrushes for adding fields, text boxes, and buttons to the form.

Parts of Design View

Parts of Design View
A Form Selector: Click the Form Selector to select the entire form. Double-click it to display the form’s properties. D Form header: The form header appears at the top of the form.
B Controls group: The Controls group is where you can add controls to your form. Click a button in the Controls gallery to create a control on the form. E Add Existing Fields button: Click the Add Existing Fields button to display the Field List pane.
C Detail divider: To enlarge the form’s header, just click and drag the header down. F Property Sheet button: Click the Property Sheet button to display the form’s property sheet.

Add a Control

Any graphic object that appears on forms and reports is called a control. A text box used to enter and display information, a text label, and a button you click to print a report would all be examples of controls. Let’s look at how to add controls in Design View.

  1. In Design View, click the control button you want to add from the Controls group. Some controls, such as buttons or lists, have a wizard that helps you set them up.
    Parts of Design View
  2. If the control you added opens the Control Wizard, navigate through it and specify the settings you want.
    Parts of Design View

See the table below for a list of some of the controls you can add and what they do.

Controls
Select Click this button and then click the control you want to select. To select multiple controls, click this button and hold down the Shift key as you click each control, or drag a rectangle around all controls you want to select.
Text Box Creates a text box that displays information from a table and query. You can also use text boxes to simply enter text.
Label Creates a static text label that is the same for every record, such as a heading. Most controls already have a text label attached.
Button Creates a button that runs a macro or Visual Basic function.
Tab Control Enables you to create tabs (like the ones found in some dialog boxes) to include more than one page of controls on the form.
Hyperlink Inserts a link to a webpage or file.
Web Browser Control Inserts a control that allows the database user to access the computer’s web browser.
Navigation Control Creates a control that allows the form to be navigated.
Option Group Creates a box around a group of option buttons so that the user is only allowed to make one selection from the group box.
Insert Page Break Inserts a page break.
Combo Box Creates a drop-down box that lets the user enter text or select an item from a list of options.
Chart Inserts a chart.
Line Enables you to draw a line.
Toggle Button Creates a toggle button that allows you to display and enter data from a Yes/No field.
List Box Creates a box that lets the user select an item from a list of options.
Rectangle Enables you to draw a rectangle.
Check box Creates a box that is checked or unchecked. Use to enter data from a Yes/No field.
Unbound Object Frame Inserts an OLE object that is not bound to a field in the current database. Use an Unbound Object Frame to display information from an external source or program, such as a spreadsheet, graphic, or other file.
Attachment Provides the option to include an attachment.
Option Button Creates an option button (or radio button) that allows the user to make a single selection from two or more choices. Option buttons are normally used with the Option Group control.
Subform/Subreport Inserts another form within the main form. Use when you want to show data from a one-to-many relationship.
Bound Object Frame Inserts an OLE object that is bound to a field in the database. Use Bound Object Frames to display pictures or other OLE information in the database.
Image Displays a picture or graphic file that you specify.
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