Building Modified Forms   «Prev  Next»

Lesson 9 Customizing sections on a form
Objective Modify the various form sections (headers, footers, and detail).

Customizing Sections on Access Form

There are a total of five sections possible to use on a form, of which one (the Detail section) is the only required one.

Access Section Display

  1. Used for displaying information or controls that remain the same for all records.
  2. Used for column headings when printing a form.
  3. Displays record information.
  4. Used for summarizing page information when printing a form.
  5. Used for displaying information or controls that remain the same for all records. Also used for summarizing information for all records.

You can see the Five Sections by clicking on the View Mouseover button to the left, or by using the Customer Phone List form from Northwind.mdb, a sample database that comes with Access.
By default, when you create a form from scratch, the Detail section is displayed. To display and use the other sections, you need to use either Page Header/Footer or Form Header/Footer from the View menu.
Once you have displayed a section, you can then customize it as you like. Just as with the form as a whole and controls, you can modify different aspects of the form by double-clicking on a section, thereby displaying the property sheet.
Here are a few tips to help you use the various sections to their best advantage:
  1. Use page headers and footers only when you are printing a form.
  2. Use form headers and footers for displaying controls and information that you want displayed regardless of what record you are on. Notice in the MouseOver that the buttons at the bottom of the form remain in place.
  3. When you want something to reflect for each record, put it in the Detail section.
In the next lesson, we will conclude this module.