Aligning Controls in a Form

To give your form a professional look, make sure that controls are aligned evenly. You can use the form rulers or display the form grid to give you visual guidelines. Rather than trying to manually align controls, use the Access alignment tools. You can select multiple controls and then align them by the left side, the right side, top or bottom.

To align controls in a form:

1. Show the form grid by selecting Grid from the View menu.
2. Show the rules by selecting Ruler from the View menu.
3. Select the controls you want to align by clicking the first control, then holding the Shift key and clicking the next control.
4. Select Align from the Format menu. Pick the alignment you want: left, right, top, or bottom.

If you specify an alignment that would cause controls to overlap, Access will place the edges of the controls right next to each other, but won't overlap them.

Use left or right alignment for controls that are in the same column. Use top or bottom alignment for control that are in the same row.

You can select multiple controls by clicking on an empty area of the form, holding down the mouse button, and dragging across the form. When you release the mouse button, all of the controls in the area you just drew will be selected.