Part I: Access Building Blocks
272
Selecting a single control
Select any individual control by clicking anywhere on the control. When you click a control, the
sizing handles appear. If the control has an attached label, the move handle for the label also
appears in the upper-left corner of the control. If you select a label control that is associated with
another control, all the handles for the label control are displayed, and only the move handle
appears in the associated control.Selecting multiple controls
You select multiple controls in these ways:l (^) Click each control while holding down the Shift key.
l Drag the pointer through or around the controls that you want to select.
l (^) Click and drag in the ruler to select a range of controls.
Figure 7.17 shows the result of selecting the multiple bound controls graphically. When you select
multiple controls by dragging the mouse, a rectangle appears as you drag the mouse. Be careful to
drag the rectangle only through the controls you want to select. Any control you touch with the
rectangle or enclose within it is selected. If you want to select labels only, make sure that the selec-
tion rectangle only encloses the labels.
Tip
If you find that controls are not selected when the rectangle passes through the control, you may have the
global selection behavior property set to Fully Enclosed. This means that a control is selected only if the
selection rectangle completely encloses the entire control. Change this option by clicking the Microsoft Office
Button and selecting Access Options. Then select Object Designers and set the Forms/Reports Selection behav-
ior to Partially Enclosed.
Tip
By holding down the Shift or Ctrl key, you can select several noncontiguous controls. This lets you select
controls on totally different parts of the screen. Click on the form in Design view and then press Ctrl+A to
select all the controls on the form. Press Shift or Ctrl and click on any selected control to remove it from
the selection.
Deselecting controls
Deselect a control by clicking an unselected area of the form that doesn’t contain a control. When
you do so, the handles disappear from any selected control. Selecting another control also deselects
a selected control.
Manipulating controls
Creating a form is a multistep process. The next step is to make sure that your controls are prop-
erly sized and moved to their correct positions. The Layout tab of the ribbon — shown in Figure
7.18 — contains commands used to assist you in manipulating controls.