The “Control” Toolbox

In Access, we can easily add various types of “Controls” using the “Control” Toolbox.
Below is a picture of the various “Controls” which are made available to us:

Selecting objects
-Select objects

-Label
-Label

-Group box
-Option group

Radio button
-Option button

-List
Combo box

Command button
-Command button

-Independent Object
-Unbound object frame

Page end
Page-break

-Subform
-Subform

Rectangle
-Rectangle

-Control Wizard
-Control Wizard

Text field
-Textbox

-Toggle
-Toggle button

-Selection
Check box

List
-List box

Graphic
-Image

-Dependent object
-Bound object frame

Tab control
Tab Control

Lines
-Line

-More controls
-More controls

To add a “Control”, we select the “Control” that we seek in the “Toolbox”, click and drag it into the form at the place where we want to have the “Control”.

We can adjust the change of placement of “Controls” in the same ways we have discussed in the previous lesson.

In this lesson we will see how to add “Controls” to our form or report in “Design View”.

To make it a little easier, we will ensure that the “Control Wizard” button is selected.
When this button is pressed on an object which we added to our form or report, the associated wizard will start automatically.

The Control “Toolbox” (“Toolbox”) will automatically appear when you create a form or report in “Design View”.

If you have closed it, you can always access it by clicking on “View” and going to ‘ Toolbox” in the menu bar in “Design View”.

Add “Label Control”

We use the “Label Control” to add text to our form.

To add a “Label Control”, we select the “Label” button, and drag it to the place in the form where you want it to be.

There is no wizard associated with this “Control”, so if you release the mouse button you will only see a text area where we can enter text.
Please note, if you do not directly enter the text, but click somewhere else on the form, the “Label” object will disappear.

If you want to edit the text, first select the “Label”, then you can customize the text.

Once you finish editing the text for a “Label” , click anywhere on your form to deselect the label.

Add “Image Controls”

Image controls are added to our form to give a bit more flair to it.

To add an image we open the form in “Design View.”

In the “Control Toolbox”, we select the “Image” button , and then click and drag the image to where you want to place it in the form.

When we let go of the mouse the “Control” inserts itself into our form, and the dialog box “Insert Picture” will appear.

Click on the dropdown button “Look In” to navigate to the folder where your image can be found on your PC.

Select your image and click OK.

Add “Line Control”

With “Line Control”, you add lines to your report or form.

We can use it in our form / report to divide into sections.

To add a line, we open the form in ‘Design View”.

In the control “Toolbox”, select the “Line” button . Click and drag the line to where you want to place it in the form.

The line appears when we release our mouse.

There is no Wizard associated with a line in order to add it.

Add “Rectangle Control”

“Rectangle Control” can create “frames” in our form.

To add a

“Rectangle Control”

, we open the form in “Design View”.

In the control “Toolbox” select the “Rectangle” button .. Click and drag the line to where you want to place it in the form.

The rectangle appears when we release our mouse.

There is no Wizard associated with this control.

We can use the rectangle to move to the back or bring forward over the other objects in the form. For this, click “Format” and select “Bring to Front” or “Send to Back”.

Add “Combo Box Control” (“Combo Box Control”)

The “Combo Box Control”s allows you to create drop down menus from which the user can make a choice.

The different choices in the menu are from a table or query and can be removed or you can manually enter choices.

These controls can drastically reduce errors in entering data into the fields.

If you have entered “Look Up” fields in your table, you will notice that this kind of field automatically loads choice lists when it appears in your form.

This is not a requirement, we can also create combo boxes in our form that are not connected to “Look Up” fields.

To create a Combo Box in our form, we select the “Combo box” button. Click and drag it to where you want to place it in the form.

If you have selected the Wizard button for doing this, the “Combo box Wizard” will start a dialog to guide you through to achieve the “Combo box Control”.

Answer the questions in the different windows in the Wizard until you reach the end and click Next .
Then click Finish.

Combo boxes are used almost exclusively by “Forms” because “Reports” only serve to read data from our database.

The making of “List Box Control” (“List Box Control”)

“List Box Control” is very similar to Combo box.

The different choices in the menus also come from a table or query, or you can manually enter choices.

The only difference is, in a combobox, the user clicks on the dropdown menu before he can make a choice, and in the list box the choices are all on the screen.

The “List Control” also takes more place in our form.

To create a List box in our form, we select the list box button , and click and drag to the place where we want in our form.

If you have selected the Wizard button for doing this, the “List box Wizard” starts a dialog to guide you through to achieve the “List box Control”.

Answer the questions in the different windows in the Wizard until you reach the end and click Next .
Then click Finish.

Setting the Tab Order

When the user opens a form in Access, they can jump from field to field by the use of the “Tab” key on their keypad.

We can set the order in which cursor moves from field to field.

Click “View” on the menu bar and select “Tab Order”.

Then a window opens. In this window, all existing “Control” which are posted on our form can be found.

Access taborder will appear in the order that we have placed controls on the form.

Now we can skip the order by clicking and dragging of the fields in the “Tab Order” dialog box. Click the gray box next to the field name at the top or bottom.

Click OK when all tab orders are set.

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