Creating a form in MS Access can save a lot of time when inputting data into one or more tables. In this article, we’ll go over the basics of creating a form from a table, adding additional fields, and inserting a drop-down menu into the form.
To begin, select the table you want to use in the Navigation pane. Click the Form command in the Create tab to create a new form that contains all of the fields from your table. Save the form with a name that you will recognize later.
Sometimes your form will include a subform if your table is linked to another table. Access creates a subform that includes a list of any orders that the customer has placed. If you don’t need the subform, you can delete it by clicking on it and pressing the Delete key.
If you later decide to add a field to the table, it will not appear automatically in this form, so you would need to add it manually. You can select Add Existing Fields from the Design tab to open up the Field List, which shows all of the fields from this table. You can double-click a field to add it to the form or add a field from a different table by clicking Show all tables.
Sometimes you may want to add a drop-down menu, which Access calls a combo box, to make the form easier to use. Find the Controls group in the Design tab and select the Combo Box command. Then click on the form where you want it to go. The Combo Box Wizard will open up, and you can type in each value and adjust the width of the column. When a user chooses a value from the combo box, you want the value to be stored in the table. Select the second option and pick the field that you want. In the last step, type a label.
To test the combo box, switch to Form view and check that your options appear. Now you have a working form, and you can make more adjustments to it in the next couple of steps to make it better suit your needs.