Chapter 6 - Working with Form Controls

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The purpose of a form is to display data from the table, query, SQL statement, or recordset that is the form’s record source. But a blank form won’t display any data—you need to place controls on the form to display data from the fields in the form’s record source. Sometimes you’ll also want to add decorative elements to a form; you use controls for this purpose as well.

Controls are interface elements that are placed on a form (or report). Controls bound to fields (data-bound controls) are automatically placed on forms when you use the Form Wizard to create a new form. However, when you create a form using the Design View selection in the New Form dialog box, you have to place all the controls on the form manually. You must always place decorative controls (such as lines and rectangles) on forms manually (although some decorative controls are placed on reports automatically when you create a report using the Report Wizard).

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the different types of controls you can place on forms and how to use these controls to display various types of data. You’ll learn how to offer users options to select from and how to run Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code associated with particular controls. You’ll also learn how to set control properties to make them attractive and easy to use.