After you have used Microsoft Office Access 2007 to create forms and reports to display your table

and query data,

you can change the appearance of any control on the form or report. You can change the appearance of individual

elements in your Office Access 2007 objects, but an easier way to change the format of an entire form or report at

once is to use an AutoFormat that is included with Access. You can use an AutoFormat as it is out of the box, or you

can choose to apply certain parts of the AutoFormat. If you want, you can even create and modify your own

AutoFormats so you can make the appearance of your forms and reports consistent. Another useful Access capability

is to create a conditional format, which changes the appearance of the data in a text box based on the data's value. If

a customer hasn't placed an order in the last year, a product has been discontinued, or a shipment took more than a

week to arrive, you can use conditional formats to highlight that data and bring it to your attention quickly.

1. Applying AutoFormats

Rather than define the format of every object in your forms and reports, you can apply one of the AutoFormats

installed with Access. AutoFormats let you do more than just apply an existing format, however; you can choose

which elements of an AutoFormat to apply, create new AutoFormats to match the formatting of an existing form or

report, or modify an existing AutoFormat.

Select an AutoFormat
1. Open the form or report you want to format in Design view.

2. Click the Arrange tab.

3. Click the AutoFormat group.

4. Click the AutoFormat you want to apply.

  CAUTION    You can't change a built-in AutoFormat; you can only change an AutoFormat you created.

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Apply AutoFormat elements

1. Open the form or report you want to format in Design view.

2. Click the Arrange tab.

3. Click the AutoFormat group.

4. Click AutoFormat Wizard.

5. Click the AutoFormat you want to apply.

6. Click Options.

7. Select or clear the Font, Color, and Border check boxes to select the AutoFormat attributes you want to

apply.

8. Click OK.
 Customize an AutoFormat
1. Open the form or report you want to format in Design view.

2. Click the Arrange tab.

3. Click the AutoFormat group.

4. Click AutoFormat Wizard.

5. Click the AutoFormat you want to customize. You can only customize an AutoFormat you created.

6. Click Customize.

7. Select the Update option to modify the selected AutoFormat to match the formatting of the active form or

report.

8. Click OK to close the Customize AutoFormat dialog box.

9. Click OK to close the AutoFormat dialog box.

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Create an AutoFormat
1. Open the form or report you want to format in Design view.

2. Click the Arrange tab.

3. Click the AutoFormat group.

4. Click AutoFormat Wizard.

5. Click the AutoFormat you want to customize.

6. Click Customize.

7. Select the Create A New AutoFormat option and click OK.

8. Type the name of the new AutoFormat in the New Style Name dialog box.

9. Click OK to close the New Style Name dialog box.

10. Click OK to close both the Customize AutoFormat and AutoFormat dialog boxes.

 TIP    To delete an AutoFormat, open the AutoFormat dialog box, click the AutoFormat that you want to delete, click

Customize, select the Delete option, and then click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

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2. Coloring alternate rows in a form or report

You can create forms and reports that display one table or query record per page, but viewing data one record at a

time can take away your ability to relate one record to the next. Viewing multiple records on a form or report helps

you spot patterns in your data, but distinguishing one row from another can be difficult unless you change the

formatting to make the rows stand out from their neighbors. In Access 2007, you can format your form or report so

that alternating data rows have a different background color. You can choose whichever color combinations you'd
 like, but bear in mind that a combination that works well onscreen might not work well on the printed page. Test your

choices to figure out which combinations best meet your needs.

Color alternate data rows

1. Display a form in Datasheet view.

2. Click the Home tab.

3. In the Font group, click the Alternate Fill/Back Color button's down arrow.

4. Click the color you want to apply to alternate datasheet form rows.

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3. Applying conditional formatting

Changing the appearance of your form and report data by applying formats (or AutoFormats) makes your data easier

to read. However, you may want to apply different formats to a control's contents based on the data's value. For

example, you might want to highlight the names of any customers who are within 10 percent of their credit limit or

display information about discontinued products in red.

Define a conditional format

1. Open a form or report in Design view.

2. Click the control to which you want to apply a conditional format.

3. If necessary, click the Design tab.

4. In the Font group, click Conditional.

5. Click the comparison phrase field's down arrow and then click the desired comparison.

6. Type values into the value fields to define the condition's parameters.

7. Use the Bold, Italic, Underline, Fill Color, Font Color, and Enabled buttons to define the conditional

format.

8. If desired, follow either of these steps:

Click Add to define another condition.

Click Delete, select which conditions you want to delete, and then click OK to delete a condition.

9. Click OK.

 CAUTION    If you change the appearance of a control's contents by making the contents bold or increasing the font

size, be sure the control is large enough to display the data.

 TIP    If you create multiple conditions, make sure there is no overlap between the conditions, such as one condition

checking whether a number is less than 3000 and another checking whether the same number is less than 1500. If

there is overlap, the first condition Access checks is applied. The proper way to create the conditions is to check in

Condition 1 if a value is between 1500 and 3000 and then check in Condition 2 if the value is less than 1500.

Forms with a More Customized Appearance

Although the Form Wizard described in Part 1 of this series allows for an easy way to
create basic new forms in Access, there are several reasons why people may prefer this
more traditional way of form creation. First off, manual form creation allows for greater
control over the appearance and function of your final form. You can make the form as
simple or complex as you desire. In addition, once you become accustomed to creating
forms, you may find the manual method an even faster solution than using the Form
Wizard, especially if the form you want to create is fairly simple in nature.

In the following steps, we’ll show exactly how to make a new form in Design View
without using the Form Wizard in Access. We’ll use the same sample database as we
did in Part 1 of this series to demonstrate these steps.

How to Create a Form Manually in Access 2007

Step 1: After opening the database to which you would like to add a new form, select
Form Design from the Create tab on the Access ribbon. (Click any image for a larger
view.)

This will open a blank form in Design View as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 2: Make sure that the Design tab under Form Design Tools is open on the
Access ribbon. Click on Property Sheet.

This will open the Property Sheet panel as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 3: In the Property Sheet window, click on the tab labeled Data. From the Record
Source dropdown list, select the table that contains the fields you want to include in
your form.
Step 4: After selecting a table, click on the Add Existing Fields button on the Access
ribbon.

Now, in the right panel, you will see a list of all available fields from the table you chose
in Step 3.

Step 5: Click on a field in the Field List panel that you want to add to the form. Hold
down the mouse key and drag the field to the position on the form where you want it to
be located.

After placing the field, you can resize both the field label and content boxes by clicking
and dragging the boundary boxes around the field name.

Continue this process for each field you want to add to the form. At any time during this
process, if you want to get an idea of how the final form will look, click on the View
button on the Access ribbon and select Form View. To return to your form design in
order to make additional modifications, click View again and choose Design View.
Step 6: When finished designing the form, click the Save icon in the Quick Access
Toolbar (or click the Office button and select Save). Enter a name for the form in the
pop-up box that appears on the screen.

Click OK when done, and the new form will be visible in the Forms list

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Customizing Access 2007 Forms

In the first two parts of this series, we showed two different ways to create new forms in
Access 2007. But, what if you don’t want to create a brand new form and simply want to
make changes to one that already exists? Instead of starting from scratch, you can add
or delete fields and make any other changes to an existing form within Design View.
This can save a lot of time, especially if all you want to do is add another field or two.

This method of form editing can be used for any form, no matter how it was created.
You can even download form templates created by others and modify them to fit your
own projects. The process for making these changes is described in the steps below.
We’ll use the form created in Part 1 of this series as a working example when walking
through these steps.

Adding a Field to an Existing Form

Step 1: Open the form you wish to modify. As an example, we’ll open the Sample
Contact List created in Part 1 of this series. (Click any image for a larger view.)
Step 2: On the Home tab of the Access ribbon, click on the View icon and then choose
Design View.

Step 3: If the Field List panel is not visible, click on the Add Existing Fields icon in the
Design tab under Form Design Tools. You can skip this step if the Field List already
appears.

Step 4: From the Field List, click on the field that you want to add and drag it to the
position on the form where you would like it to be located. Just as in Part 2 of this
series, you can resize and move the field once you place it on the form.
Step 5: Repeat Step 4 for each field that you would like to add.

Step 6: When done, save the form. To see the new form with the recent additions, click
on the View icon in the Home tab and select Form View.

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