16 min read
Designing a Form in Design View and Layout View
Layout View adjusts a form while it keeps showing live data; Design View reveals the full structural blueprint — Header, Detail, and Footer.
Field Notes: Two Views, Two Jobs
Go to View, then Layout View, to adjust a form while it continues to display live, real data — drag a field's edge to resize it, drag fields to reorder them, and see your changes immediately reflected with actual information, not just placeholder boxes.
Go to View, then Design View, to see and adjust the form's underlying structural blueprint — no live data shown — divided into sections: the Form Header (shown once, at the very top, often holding a title), the Detail section (repeated for each record, holding the actual fields), and the Form Footer (shown once, at the very bottom, sometimes holding summary information or buttons).
More lessons in Microsoft Access · Next: Adding Controls: Text Boxes, Labels, Combo Boxes · Previous: Creating a Form with the Form Wizard
