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Forms in Layout View - Part 1

Create a new form to maintain the ticket information and change the design in Layout view. 

When to use

We use Layout view to design forms if we want to get very granular and have full control over the design of the form and each field. 

Instructions

Creating a New Form

  • Select the table 'tblTicket' in the navigation pane. 
  • From the Create tab, in the Forms group, select Form. 

This form will be more complex than the last one because we have many more fields. We will work on this form using Layout View. 

  • Click the Layout View button in the status bar. 

Changing the Design of the form

The form is in Single Form view and Tabular Layout. The information on the form is laid out in columns and rows. This is a good view to use as it's very organized and easy to read. However, it can be quite wasteful of space. 

For example, 'ID' and 'TicketNumber' are both small fields that occupy an entire row. We could save space on the form by moving both into one row. 

It's also worth noting that each field on the form has its own label. The label lets the user know what the field represents. 

  • Click on the 'ID' field. 
  • Hold down CTRL and click on the 'ID' label. 
  • Press Delete. 
  • Select the 'TicketNumber' field. 
  • On the Arrange tab, in the Rows & Columns group, click Insert Above. 
  • Click in the data part of the field (not the label).
  • From the Merge/Split group, click Split Horizontally. 
  • From the Form Layout Design tab, in the Tools group, click Add Existing Fields. 
  • From the Fields List pane, drag the 'ID' field into the first empty field on the form. 
  • Drag the 'TicketNumber' field into the second empty field on the form. 
  • Select the original 'TicketNumber' field and press Delete.
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  • 00:04 In this lesson, we're going to be talking about forms in Layout view.
  • 00:09 And I'm going to show you a few design changes that you can make to your forms
  • 00:12 when you're working in this view.
  • 00:15 Now Layout view is very similar to Design view in that we can make design changes.
  • 00:21 Now before we create a brand new form, we are going to rename our current form.
  • 00:27 So, I'm going to right-click on form company tabular and click on Rename.
  • 00:31 And I'm going to rename this form to FormCompanyMaintenance.
  • 00:36 So, I'm going to start out by clicking on table tickets in the navigation plane.
  • 00:42 We're then going to jump up to the Create tab, and instead of using the Form Wizard
  • 00:46 this time, we're going to click on the Form button.
  • 00:49 Now a couple of things to notice here, if I right-click we are currently
  • 00:54 working in Layout View and notice that the form is still in Single form view.
  • 00:59 So, we're seeing all the information for one record at a time.
  • 01:03 Another thing you'll notice is that if we click on the cross in the top corner,
  • 01:08 we have tabular layout applied.
  • 01:10 Now if we just switch back to Form view for one moment,
  • 01:13 this is going to show us what the form looks like to our users.
  • 01:18 One thing to know is that I can pretty much click in any field and
  • 01:22 make some amendments, make some changes.
  • 01:25 Now that's really nice and flexible for people using this form, but
  • 01:29 it also can be potentially very dangerous.
  • 01:32 Anybody can come into this form and change any of the information,
  • 01:37 including the very important ID field.
  • 01:40 And in a later lesson in this section I'm going to show
  • 01:43 you how you can prevent changes to any field in your form.
  • 01:47 Now the final thing I want to show you in this lesson,
  • 01:50 which is really going to set us up for the next few lessons,
  • 01:53 are just some tips when it comes to designing your form.
  • 01:56 So, let's jump back into Layout View.
  • 01:59 Now as I said we currently have a tabular format applied.
  • 02:03 And if I take a look at my fields, I can see that the ID field and
  • 02:07 the ticket number field are taking up quite a bit of room in my form,
  • 02:10 despite the fact that they're very small fields.
  • 02:13 So, what I can maybe think about doing here is putting both the ID and
  • 02:18 the ticket number on one row, instead of having them spread across two.
  • 02:22 And this is something you need to think about when you're putting together a form.
  • 02:26 You want to really sort of have an idea before you start as to what you want
  • 02:30 the layout to be and what's going to be least wasteful of space.
  • 02:34 So, let me show you a couple of tips when it comes to moving these fields around and
  • 02:37 redesigning the form.
  • 02:39 What I'm going to do here is I'm going to delete out the ID field, and its caption.
  • 02:44 So, we select them and press the Delete key on our keyboard.
  • 02:48 I'm then going to select the ticket number field, and
  • 02:52 we're going to insert a blank row above this row.
  • 02:55 So, up to the Arrange tab into the Rows and Columns group, and
  • 02:59 we're going to say Insert Above.
  • 03:02 Now what I'm going to do is click in that Row Above, and
  • 03:06 I'm going to split horizontally.
  • 03:09 So, now effectively I split this one row into two columns.
  • 03:13 And now what I can do is I can populate the first column with the ID information
  • 03:17 and the second column with the ticket number information.
  • 03:20 So, over in our field list we can see table ticket, I can see all of the fields,
  • 03:26 so I'm going to grab ID drag and drop it into that first section.
  • 03:31 I'm then going to grab TicketNumber and
  • 03:34 drag and drop that into the second section.
  • 03:37 Now you'll notice here the ID and
  • 03:39 TicketNumber are kind of being cut off at the bottom.
  • 03:41 So, we need to do a little bit of rejigging here, which means we can just
  • 03:45 drag this down a little bit, and give it a bit more breathing room.
  • 03:50 But very quickly,
  • 03:51 we've managed to save a little bit of space by putting those two on one row.
  • 03:55 Now I don't need the TicketNumber twice, so I can select the row underneath and
  • 03:59 just delete that out.
  • 04:01 So, that is the first bit of formatting that I wanted to show.
  • 04:04 Really think about your form, take a look at the fields.
  • 04:07 And if you wanted to, you can split a row into two or more columns and
  • 04:11 then reposition those fields.

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