16 min read

Adding Controls: Text Boxes, Labels, Combo Boxes

A control is any individual element on a form — bound to a field, like a text box, or unbound and purely decorative, like a label.

You will learn: bound vs unbound controls and Control Source. You will do: identify bound boxes on MembersForm. read Control Source on the Property Sheet.

Controls on a Form

Every object on a form is a control : text boxes, labels, combo boxes, buttons. Bound control — wired to a field in the record source. Edit the box \to edit the field. Unbound control — not tied to stored data. Labels and titles are usually unbound.

On MembersForm, the box showing Sophie Walsh is a text box. Control Source is FullName . Type a new name and tab away — Members.FullName changes for that row.

The words Riverside Public Library at the top sit on a label . Control Source is empty. Caption holds the wording. Delete that label and the table is untouched.

Riverside Public Library · Form View

Full nameCityPhone

Record 1 of 6 · This screen writes into the Members table.

Full name, City, and Phone boxes are bound. The title label is unbound.

Control types

$Control$	$Bound to a field?$
$Text box — Control Source FullName$	$Yes — edits Members.FullName$
$Label — Caption “Full name”$	$No — caption only$
$Combo box — Control Source City$	$Yes — stores the chosen city$
$Label — Caption with library name$	$No — title text only$

$Check whether a control is bound.$

$The Property Sheet shows Control Source for each control.$

Do this

Open MembersForm in Design View or Layout View .

Verification

You are correct if all of these are true:

Practice

Swipe or use the arrows to move between questions.

1 / 2

You delete the label “Full name” on the form. What did you remove?

Which controls on MembersForm are bound to stored fields?

Select every bound control.

- Text Box — the standard control for displaying and editing most field values. - Label — plain, unchanging text, such as a field's caption or a section heading, not connected to any data. - Combo Box — a dropdown list, ideal for a field that should only accept one of a limited set of choices, which can even pull its list live from another table. - List Box — similar to a Combo Box, but shows several options at once without needing to click to open a dropdown. - Check Box — a simple checkbox, automatically used for Yes/No fields. - Button — runs an action when clicked, such as opening another form, saving the current record, or closing the form. The easiest way to add most controls tied to real data is to open the Field List and simply drag a field's name directly onto the form, which automatically creates a matching label and text box (or combo box, for a lookup field) together.

Unbound Label

The words Riverside Public Library at the top sit on a label . Control Source is empty. Caption holds the wording. Delete that label and the table is untouched.