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Customize the appearance of text in a control

Customize the appearance of text in an existing control

1. Open a form, report, or data access page in Design view.
2. Click the control that contains the text you want to change.
3. Do one or more of the following:

   Change the alignment of text

   • On the Form/Report Formatting or Page Formatting toolbar, click Center to center the text, Align Right to align the text to the right, or Align Left to align the text to the left.

     Note  If you don't select any of the alignment buttons, text is aligned to the left and numbers are aligned to the right.

   Change the color of text

   1. On the Form/Report Formatting or Page Formatting toolbar, click the arrow next to Font/Fore Color .
   2. Click a color in the palette.

   Tip

   If you want to use the same color for another control, you can just click Font/Fore Color (you don't have to click the arrow next to the button and pick the color again from the palette). If you want to set different colors for several controls at once, click the arrow next to Font/Fore Color , and then click the horizontal bar at the top of the color palette and drag it to another location. By using this method, you won't need to click Font/Fore Color each time you want to apply a color.

   Change the font or font size, or make text bold, italic, or underlined

   On data access page scrolling text controls, you can select text and apply a different font size or font style such as bold or italic to individual characters within the control. In all other controls, when you change the font size, the change applies to the entire contents of the control.

   • Do one or more of the following:

     Change the font

     • In the Font Name box on the Form/Report Formatting or Page Formatting toolbar, click the font you want to apply.

     Change the font size

     • In the Font Size box on the Form/Report Formatting or Page Formatting toolbar, enter the font size that you want to use.

     Make text bold, italic, or underlined

     • On the Form/Report Formatting or Page Formatting toolbar, click Bold to make the text bold, Italic to make the text italic, or Underline to make the text underlined.

   Tip

   If you want to resize the control to fit the new font, point to Size on the Format menu, and then click To Fit.

Change the alignment of text in new controls or in labels attached to new controls

Changes made by using this procedure only affect new controls on the current form or report. This procedure doesn't apply to data access pages.

1. Open a form or report in Design view.
2. Do one of the following:

   Change the alignment of text in new controls

   1. In the toolbox, click the tool for the type of control whose default alignment you want to change. For example, if you want to change the default alignment of text in a text box, click the Text Box tool in the toolbox.
   2. Click Properties on the toolbar to display the property sheet.

      Microsoft Access changes the title bar of the property sheet to indicate that you're setting default properties for that type of control.

   3. In the TextAlign property box, click General, Left, Center, Right, or Distribute. If you click General, Access aligns text to the left and numbers and dates to the right. For more information, click in the TextAlign property box and press F1.

   Change the alignment of text in labels attached to new controls

   1. Click the tool in the toolbox for the type of control that has the attached label. For example, if you want to change the default alignment of text in labels that are attached to text boxes, or if you want to change the default alignment of text in a text box or in a label, click the Text Box tool in the toolbox.
   2. Click Properties on the toolbar to display the property sheet.

      Microsoft Access changes the title bar of the property sheet to indicate that you're setting default properties for that type of control.

   3. In the LabelAlign property box, click Left, Center, Right, or Distribute.

      For information about how the LabelAlign property interacts with the LabelX and LabelY properties, click the LabelX or LabelY property box and press F1.