Left Property

You can use the Left property to specify an object's location on a form or report. Read/write Integer for all of the items in the Applies To list except for the the Report object, which is read/write Long.

expression   Required. An expression that returns one of the objects in the Applies To list.

Remarks

A control's location is the distance measured from its left or top border to the left or top edge of the section containing the control. Setting the Left property to 0 places the control's edge at the very left of the section. To use a unit of measurement different from the setting in the Regional Options dialog box in Windows Control Panel, specify the unit, such as cm or in (for example, 3 cm or 2 in).

In Visual Basic, use a numeric expression to set the value of this property. Values are expressed in twips.

For controls, you can set these properties by using a control's property sheet, a macro, or Visual Basic.

For reports, you can set these properties only by using a macro or event procedure in Visual Basic while the report is in Print Preview or being printed.

When you move a control, its new Left property setting is automatically entered in the property sheet. When you view a form or report in Print Preview or when you print a form, a control's location is determined by its Left property setting along with the margin settings in the Page Setup dialog box, available by clicking Page Setup on the File menu.

For reports, the Left property setting is the amount the current section is offset from the left of the page. This property is expressed in twips. You can use this property to specify how far down the page you want a section to print in the section's Format event procedure.

Example

The following example checks the Left property setting for the current report. If the value is less than the minimum margin setting, the NextRecord and PrintSection properties are set to False (0). The section doesn't advance to the next record, and the next section isn't printed.

Sub Detail1_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)

    Const conLeftMargin = 1880

    ' Don't advance to next record or print next section
    ' if Left property setting is less than 1880 twips.
        If Me.Left < conLeftMargin Then
            Me.NextRecord = False
            Me.PrintSection = False
        End If

End Sub