Modifying a form

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Modifying a form

The form you just created with the Form Wizard may not be perfectly suited to your preferences. You can make changes to the form by going to the "design" view. If the form is open, go to the View menu and select "Design View" as follows:

If the form is not open, go to the Form tab or section in the main Access window, select the form you wish to modify, then click on the "Design" button. Either method will produce the following screen:

For your assignment, you are asked to

change the length of an entry field
change the visible property of three entry fields (fill colour, font colour, and a special effect)
change the descriptive label of a field.

The instructions on how to complete these requirements are provided below.

Changing the length of an entry field

Click on the entry field you wish to lengthen or shorten. Move the pointer to the edge of the field so that the pointer changes to a double-arrow. Next, click and drag the edge of the field to the desired length.

Change entry field properties

To change the properties of an entry field, right click on the entry field to get the following pop-up menu:

Build Event and Change To will not be covered in this module.

Tab Order - lets you change the order in which you tab from one field to another

Align and Size - lets you align a field to the grid that appears in the design view. Size lets you resize a box to to fix the contents or to the grid lines.

Fill/Back Color - lets you change the background color of an entry field

Font/Fore Color - lets you change the font that appears in the entry field

Special Effect - lets you add an effect, such as a shadow, to an entry box

Properties - lets you change the field format, data, and more

The Tab Order option allows you to change the order in which you tab from one field to another. The order is initially determined by which fields are created first. If you move the fields around in the design view, you may want to change the tab order to keep the tab moving from the top box to the bottom box in the form. The tab order window looks like the following:

As the instructions say, you need only to drag and drop the field order to suit your needs.

The "Properties" window mentioned briefly above will look like the following:

For more information on what each of these properties mean, go to the Help menu and search "Field Properties Reference."

Relocating a field

To move an entry field to a new location in the design view, simply use the click and drag procedure and drop the field in the location you want.

Expanding the descriptive label of a field

To shorten the descriptive label of a field, say from "Parent Phone Number" to "Phone," click on the descriptive label (this is the box to the left of the entry field) and simply revise the text as needed. Be sure not to change the name of the entry field source as that will break the connection between the entry field and the table data.

To return to the form view, click on the View menu and select "Form View."

Please continue to the next section on Sorting a Table.