Modifying controls on forms is as simple as opening the form in Design View, selecting the control, and opening the Properties of that control. This post follows on from the post Modifying an Access Form.
In this tutorial:
Required knowledge:
1. Set up
For this tutorial you will need a table with a Primary Key that has the AutoNumber Data Type. You will need to create a form based on this table with all the fields included.
2. Format
The format of the controls on the form will be inherited from the properties of the underlying fields in the underlying object (table or query).
2. Date Picker
If a form control is based on a table field that is a Date type, you can activate the date-picker on the form:
- Open your form in Design View
- Open the Property Sheet
- Select the relevant control
- Locate the Show Date Picker property
- Select the For dates option
Use the Tab key to move from field to field on your form.
Switch to Form View and click in or tab to the date control to see the Date Picker. Note the handy Today button option:
3. Locked & Disabled
Changing the property of a control to Locked prevents any changes from being made to the data in that specific control.
Setting the Locked property to Yes means that the control will not receive focus — the user will not be able to click or tab into the control. If the control is the first control on the form, the focus will move to the next available control.
I have used this in the example below where the responseID field displays the ID of the record which is an AutoNumber field type.
- Open your form in Design View
- Select the relevant control
- Open the Property Sheet
- Locate the Enabled property and set it to No
- Locate the Locked property and set it to Yes
Switch over to Form View and note that the focus is now automatically on the second field, FirstName. Note also that it is not possible to click in or tab to the responseID field.
To be continued…