Customize a data access page in Design view

The field list for a data access page displays all fields you can choose from in the database to add to the page. When you use the field list to add data to your data access page, Microsoft Access automatically creates controls that are bound to the fields you add, just like it does with the form and report field list.

If you want to do complex calculations using spreadsheet functions, use the Microsoft Office Spreadsheet Component. For all other calculations, you can use the bound span control.

Use the AutoSum feature to calculate aggregate values on a data access page. For numeric values, you can choose from Sum, Average, Min, Max, Count, StDev, and Any. For text, date, and time values, you can choose from Min, Max, Count, and Any.

You can show or hide buttons on the record navigation toolbar, change the image that is displayed on a navigation button, or make a control— such as a text box or bound span control — work like a navigation button.

You can change the picture that is displayed on an expand control, or make a text box or bound span control work like an expand control.

A theme is a set of unified design elements and color schemes for bullets, fonts, horizontal lines, background images, and other data access page elements. A theme helps you easily create professional and well-designed data access pages.

You can apply a theme to a page that does not have a theme, change the current theme, or remove a theme. Before applying a theme, you can preview a sample page that uses the theme.

You can sort records at each group level on one or more fields. Each field can specify a separate sort order (ascending or descending).

You can group records at each group level on one more fields. You can group on individual values of a field, prefix characters, or a range of values.

You can filter records either before or after they are retrieved from the database. Filtering records before they are retrieved from the database can improve data access page performance because there are fewer records to download from the underlying database.