Part I: Access Building Blocks
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FIGURE 9.12Choosing a theme for the report
Themes groupThemes gallery Right-click menu
Note
Access 2007 users may be wondering what happened to the AutoFormat feature in 2007. For a number of rea-
sons, Microsoft decided to replace AutoFormat with themes in Office 2010. AutoFormat applied to individual
controls, which meant a lot of work when building a complicated form or report. AutoFormat also tended to
be all or nothing, making it difficult to apply an AutoFormat and then alter the colors and fonts to controls on a
form or report. Themes are much more flexible. They even allow you to save a completed form or report as a
new theme (see the Save Current Theme option at the bottom of the theme gallery in Figure 9.12). There
was no way to create a custom AutoFormat in Access 2007.
As the right-click menu in Figure 9.12 indicates, you can apply the selected theme just to the current
report (Apply Theme to this Object Only), all reports (Apply Theme to All Matching
Objects), or all forms and reports in the application (Make This Theme the Database
Default). There’s even an option to add the theme as a button to the Quick Access toolbar, an
extremely useful option for selectively applying the theme to other objects in the database.Tip
It’s very tempting to try out every reporting style and option when building Access forms and reports.
Unfortunately, when carried too far, your Access application may end up looking like a scrapbook of design
ideas rather than as a valuable business tool. Professional database developers tend to use a minimum of form
and report styles and use them consistently throughout an application. Be considerate of your users and try not
to overwhelm them with a lot of different colors, fonts, and other user interface and reporting styles.