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Lesson 7What are ActiveX controls?
ObjectiveLearn what ActiveX controls are and where you can use them.

What are ActiveX Controls?

Access has a great number of controls, as you have seen from the lessons in this module. You probably could get by using just the controls supplied by Access such as the Combo Box, List Box, Text Box, and Option Group controls.
But using Subform and Tab controls makes your form all that much more powerful.
There is another set of controls that can be used for working with data on Access forms and reports. These controls are called ActiveX controls. ActiveX controls are for use not just with Access but also with other Microsoft products, such as Visual Basic, and with non-Microsoft products.
ActiveX controls come in a variety of flavors. Some are used strictly for Web-type applications, and some are used with the Microsoft Office products. Access has one such ActiveX control built in, the Calendar control.

Hours calendar in Microsoft Access - Calendar control
Calendar - Control : Hours calendar in Microsoft Access

The Calendar ActiveX control is discussed in greater detail in the next lesson.
Some controls, such as Calendar control, are data bound. This means that the control has a Control Source property, just like a standard Access controls. The nice thing about this is that you can bind the controls to your fields in the record source. Then, for example, when you pick a new date, the Date worked field is automatically updated.
Other controls require some Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code in order for you to take advantage of them. Some controls, like the Calendar control, can give you greater power by using VBA code to manipulate them, but they don’t require it.
The Calendar control is the only control that is included with Access. There are Other sources for ActiveX controls as well.
In the next lesson, you will learn how to add the Calendar control to a form, binding it to a data source.

ActiveX Controls - Quiz

Click the Quiz link below to answer a few questions about working with controls.
ActiveX Controls - Quiz