Access 2013 Bible

Chapter 19: Working with Form Controls

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting properties for Access forms and controls

Creating a calculated control

Using subforms in Access

Reviewing basic techniques for designing forms

Learning advanced Access forms techniques

Working with tab controls in Access forms

Collecting information with dialog boxes

Creating a form from scratch

User interface is a term you hear frequently in discussions about computer software. In virtually all applications built with Microsoft Access, the user interface consists of a series of Access forms. If you intend to develop successful Access applications, you need to understand Access forms inside and out.

This chapter helps you improve your understanding of forms. First, we show you some common controls and their properties. These controls constitute the building blocks out of which forms are constructed. We also show you some powerful ways to take advantage of subforms. We devote one section of the chapter to presenting a grab bag of forms-related programming techniques that will help you create forms that elicit the best performance from Access and your computer. Then we present a step-by-step tutorial for creating a form from scratch.

On the Web

This chapter uses examples in the Chapter19.accdb database and other files available for download on this book's website.

Setting Control Properties

The building blocks of Access forms are known as controls. The Controls group on the Design tab of the Ribbon contains more than ...