Microsoft Office

Access 2016 for Windows

Introduction to Forms

University Information Technology Services

Learning Technologies, Training & Audiovisual Outreach

Copyright © 2016 KSU Division of University Information Technology Services
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Published by Kennesaw State University – UITS 2016

The publisher makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the material contained in this document and
therefore is not responsible for any damages or liabilities incurred from UITS use.

Microsoft product screenshot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Access are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.
 University Information Technology Services
Microsoft Office: Access 2016 for Windows
Introduction to Forms

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Learning Objectives..................................................................................................................................... 4
Forms .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Creating the Form ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Accessing the Property Sheet ..................................................................................................................... 6
Changing the Background Color of a Form ............................................................................................. 7
Drawing Labels .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Change Text Style and Color ................................................................................................................. 11
Move and Resize a Text Box ................................................................................................................. 11
Drawing Lines ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Adding Fields to the Form ......................................................................................................................... 13
Arranging Fields on the Form................................................................................................................ 15
Changing the Tab Order ............................................................................................................................ 16
Removing a Tab Stop for a Field ........................................................................................................... 18
Entering Data in the Form ......................................................................................................................... 19
Creating Buttons to Navigate through the Form ...................................................................................... 21
Creating a Back Button to Navigate to Previous Records ..................................................................... 24
Saving the Form ........................................................................................................................................ 27
Searching for a Record .............................................................................................................................. 29
Attaching Photos to a Record ................................................................................................................... 30
Additional Help ......................................................................................................................................... 33
Introduction
Microsoft Access allows people to effectively and efficiently organize data. Forms are powerful tools in
which you can easily view, add, or modify data that is stored in the Access database. The various
sections presented in this document will help you to build a solid knowledge foundation.

The Microsoft Access Documentation Series will provide you the necessary knowledge on how to use
Microsoft Office Access 2016. Before reading this booklet, it is recommended that you read the
Microsoft Office Access – Intro to Access 2016 documentation on the UITS Documentation Center at
http://uits.kennesaw.edu/cdoc.

Learning Objectives
The following objectives are covered in this document:
 Understanding how to create a form
 Editing form properties
 Entering data into the form
 Searching for records in a form
 Saving the form

Revised: 6/29/2016 Page 4 of 33

Forms
A foundation was created in the Microsoft Office Access 2016 - Intro to Access training documentation,
which can be viewed at http://uits.kennesaw.edu/cdoc. In that documentation, you were presented
with the following table:

University Ambassador Database

Student ID
First Name
Last Name
Hometown
Campus
Date of Birth
Application Received
Account Balance Due

Figure 1 - Example Table

For this booklet, we will continue using this table in order to create a form. Forms are powerful tools
in which you can easily view, add, or modify data that is stored in the Access database. If your
database is going to be used by multiple users, it is recommended that a well-designed form be used
for efficiency and data accuracy. The following explains how to create and design forms in Access.

Creating the Form

The following instructions explain how to create an interactive form from scratch that allows the user
to effectively interact with the database.

1. On the Create tab, click Form Design.

Figure 2 – Form Design

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