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Viewing a Form in Design View

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After you open the database that contains the form you want to view in Design view, click the Forms option in the Objects bar.

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Click the form you want to modify or view.

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Click the Design button in the database window's toolbar.

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The form opens in Design view and is divided into three sections: Form Header, Detail, and Form Footer. You can add items to or remove items from each of these sections.

INTRODUCTION

When you create a form using a wizard or an AutoForm, you may find that you need to make some changes to it to better suit your needs. To do so, you view the form in Design view, which shows you the underlying structure of the form. Likewise, if you want to create a form from scratch, you'd do so in this view. This task shows you how to view a form in Design view; you'll learn how to modify a form in later tasks.

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The form is created through the use of controls. Some controls are labels and display the name of the field.

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Other controls, called text box controls, pull data from the table to display in the form.

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Note the Control toolbox. This palette of buttons lets you add, select, and modify the controls on the form.

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All the controls are placed on the form. You can resize the entire form if needed by dragging its border.

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Using the Ruler

Design view includes a ruler to help you place and align items on the form.

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Toolbox not Displayed?

If the toolbox is not displayed, open the View menu and choose Toolbox. (You can close the toolbox by clicking its Close button.)

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Creating a Form from Scratch

If you want to create a form from scratch, you could select to create a blank form by selecting Create form in Design view from the database window. Then display the field list and add the fields you want to include.

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