Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

679

CHAPTER

Advanced Access

Form Techniques

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting properties for Access

forms and controls

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

U

ser interface is a term you hear frequently in discussions about com-
puter 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, I show
you how to programmatically manipulate the many controls that constitute
the building blocks out of which forms are constructed. I also show you
some powerful ways to take advantage of subforms. I devote one section of
the chapter to presenting a grab-bag of forms-related programming tech-
niques that will help you create forms that elicit the best performance from
Access and your computer. Then, I cover the Query by Form feature, which
enables you to build an intuitive form-based interface between users and
Access queries.

On the CD-ROM

This chapter uses examples in the Chapter19.accdb database and other
files in the Chapter_19 folder on this book’s CD. If you have not yet copied
the contents of this folder to your computer, please do so now.

Setting Control Properties

The building blocks of Access forms are known as controls. The form design
toolbox contains more than a dozen different types of controls from which
you can build forms, including labels, text boxes, option groups, toggle