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I'm working on a form that we can use in
our bakery to view and edit the customer
information and I know the employees are
going to be using this form a lot so I
want to make it as pleasant and easy to
use as possible to do that I'm going to
need to make some adjustments to the
layout and formatting the first thing
I'm going to do is add a command button
that the user can click to search for a
specific record to add a command button
you'll need to be in layout view in the
design tab find the controls group click
on the drop down arrow and make sure
that use control wizards is selected and
then select the button command then in
the form click where you want the button
to go there are many different actions
that you can choose from and they're
organized under different categories
most of the time you're probably just
going to use actions from the first four
categories the one that I want is in
record navigation and it's called find
record
then click Next here you can choose
whether you want the button to display
text or a picture in this case I'm going
to use the default binoculars picture
but you can also browse for another
picture if you want in the last step you
can type a name for the button I'll call
it search and this text will not appear
on the button but it may be helpful if
you need to edit the button later with
the property sheet click finish and your
button will appear on the form at this
point I want to move and resize the
field so we can get a better view of
everything I think everything would fit
a lot better if I put it into two
columns you can adjust the fields just
like you would in a report for example
you can click on a cell and then drag
the edge to resize the column next I'm
going to go to the arrange tab and then
in the rows and columns group select
insert right to add a column I'm going
to click it twice so we have one column
for the field labels and another for the
actual fields then I'll just click and
drag the fields where I want them you
may end up with some empty rows and you
can just click on them and press the
Delete key to get rid of them and I'd
like the other notes field to be larger
so I'm going to merge it with the other
cells in its row I'll hold down the
shift key while I'm clicking on each
cell
and then on the arrange tab I'll click
the merge command finally I'm going to
make some adjustments to the colors and
fonts just to make it look a little
nicer and again this is exactly like
formatting a report you can go to the
design tab to add a logo or choose a
theme but keep in mind the theme applies
to your entire database so if you want
to make changes that will only apply to
this form you can use the command in the
format tab here you can adjust the
colors and fonts of individual elements
in the form I'm going to control click
the fields that I want to change and now
I can adjust the fill color outline
color and outline weight I'm also going
to choose a background color and add a
few final touches ok my form is now
finished I've added the logo for our
bakery I've added a shadow to the search
box from the shape effects menu and I've
also changed the font of the form header
now it may take some time to get the
form exactly how you want it but once
you do you'll have a
professional-looking form that's easy
for people to use
you