Changing the Arrangement of Forms 837
Changing the Arrangement of Forms
Forms generated with the Form tool are functional, not fancy. By default, they are arranged
in the Stacked layout, which arranges all the label controls in a single column on the left
and all their corresponding text box controls in a single column to their right. All the boxes
of each type are the same size, and in the boxes, the text is left-aligned.
If it suits the needs of your data better to display records in a tabular layout much
like that of a table in Datasheet view, you can click Tabular in the Table group on the
Arrange contextual tab.
If the default layout doesn’t suit your needs or preferences, you can customize it. Most of
the rearranging you are likely to want to do can be accomplished in Layout view, where
you can see the impact on the underlying data. If you want to make more extensive
changes to the layout of a non-Web database, you can switch to Design view.
In Layout view, you can do the following to improve the form’s layout and make it
attractive and easy to use:
● Add and delete a variety of controls
● Change the size, color, and effects of controls
● Move controls
● Change text alignment
● Change control margins
Tip The order in which you make changes can have an impact on the results. If you don’t see
the expected results, click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar to reverse your
previous action, or click the Undo arrow, and click an action in the list to reverse more than
one action.
In this exercise, you’ll size, align, and rearrange the label and text box controls in
a form.