Working with Form Controls

Each item on a form, such as a field name , a field value, and the form title, is called a control. When you create a form with a wizard, the wizard takes care of arranging and sizing the controls to make a form according to the selections you provided to the wizard. If you want to modify a form, you can do so in Design view by:

• Moving and sizing controls.

• Changing control properties.

• Changing the appearance of controls with borders, shading, and text effects such as bold and italics.

• Inserting new controls.

• Organizing controls using group boxes.

Types of Form Controls

There are three kinds of controls you can use in a form:

• Bound controls are fields of data from a table or query. A form must contain a bound control for each field that you want to appear on the form. You cannot create a calculation in a bound control.

• Unbound controls are controls that contain a label or a text box. Typically, you use unbound controls to identify other controls or areas on the form. You can create calculations from an unbound control.

• Calculated controls are any values calculated in the form, including totals, subtotals, averages, percentages, and so on.

To create a control, you click the control button for the kind of control you want to create and then drag the pointer over the area where you want the control to appear. The control buttons are available on the Toolbox in Design view.

In Design view, you see two parts for every control: the control itself and its corresponding label. When you drag a control to position it, its corresponding label moves with it (and visa versa). You cannot separate a label from its control.

If you are unsure of how to create controls, you can click the Control Wizard button on the toolbox to activate the Control Wizards. With the Control Wizards active, a wizard guides you through the process of creating certain types of controls. For example, if you create a list box control with the Control Wizards button active, the wizard appears, providing information about this type of control. It also prompts you to enter a name for the control label. To turn off the Control Wizards, click the Control Wizards button again (so that it is no longer indented).

Each type of form control has specific characteristics you can change using the Properties feature. You simply select the control you want to modify and then click the Properties button on the Form Design toolbar. In the control property sheet, you can specify the characteristics you want to change.