Set Control Defaults In Access Forms
Microsoft Access has its own way of doing things when it comes to forms. You
may be skilled at designing forms in Visual Basic, in Microsoft Word or Excel,
but you have to get used to a new way of doing things when you design forms for
Access.
One of the first things you notice when designing Access forms is that the
textbox control doesn’t really create textboxes, it creates a textbox AND a
label—whether you want it or not. It also ties the two together so that it is
frustrating to align, move, or otherwise change one control without changing the
other. Fortunately, you can change this behavior.
All controls can be given a default format. Some obvious changes can be made
this way. For instance, Tahoma is the default font for Access controls. It’s not
the best font—both Arial and Times New Roman are more popular. Create one
textbox and reformat it so that the font is Times New Roman 10 or 12. Then, with
the control still selected, go to Format > Set Control Defaults as shown below.
That’s fine, the control’s font is set, but what about the labels? OK, go to
the label that goes with the textbox and select only it. You should see it
surrounded with black blobs. Now delete it using the delete key on the keyboard.
Go once again to Format > Set Control Defaults.
Create several new textbox controls. You’ll see that they have your preferred
font and no accompanying label.
To see this demonstrated, go the the Tips
and Tricks section of our website and look for
Set Control Defaults In
Access Forms.
You can view in Real player or
Windows
Media player—give it a try.
Unfortunately, you have to go through these steps for every type of control
you plan to use. You must set the font, size and other features of labels (if
you plan to place your own), listboxes, drop-down boxes, radio buttons and all
of the other controls you use.
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If you are planning on using a particular design for a project, you can make
a dummy form called frmFormats and place every kind of control there is on the
form. Make sure everything looks good!
Go to Tools > Options on the main database menu. In the Options dialog box,
look for the tab that says Forms/Reports. There should be a box that says Form
Template:_____. Type in frmFormats and all of your forms will follow the format
you set. See the graphic below.
You can also import/export this form into other databases and use it as
the default form format.
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