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opportunities for a better life
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 forum
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 okay 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