Big Forms
By Richard Rost
9 hours ago
New! Big Forms Give Your Dashboards More Room In this lesson, I will show you how to use big forms in Microsoft Access to create wider and taller form layouts for dashboards, charts, and other information. We will look at enlarging a form in Design View, using the extra space effectively, checking your Access version for support, and considering screen size and display scaling before sharing large forms with other users. MembersIn the extended cut, we will learn how to use VBA with large forms, position controls, work around older layout-code limitations including the 32,000-ish twip positioning limit, and line up multiple wide forms beyond that limit. Silver Members and up get access to view Extended Cut videos, when available. Gold Members can download the files from class plus get access to the Code Vault. If you're not a member, Join Today!
PrerequisitesLinksRecommended Courses
Keywords TechHelp Access, Access big forms, large form dimensions, wide forms, Access dashboard layout, wide chart layout, Form Design View, Access version 2609, form positioning limit, twip positioning limit, overlapping windows, side-by-side forms, Access form zooming
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More InformationTranscript So you've got a big, wide-screen monitor, but your Access dashboard still feels like it's squeezed into a little corner. Wouldn't it be nice to give that chart some room without making the writing so small you can't read it?
Welcome to another TechHelp video brought to you by Access Learning Zone. I'm your instructor, Richard Rost.
Today, we're looking at a new feature that was just released by Microsoft: big forms in Microsoft Access.
First of all, you don't need to know any VBA or be an expert at building databases. I'm going to show you what all that extra space is useful for, give you a couple of quick demonstrations, and then point out one important thing to check before you send a bigger form to somebody else.
All right, so here's the feature in a nutshell. Big forms give you a larger design area for an individual Access form. You can make an existing form wider or taller, move things into that extra space, and use it for something like a dashboard or a wide chart or whatever.
You don't have to write any special code to do it. Just open the form in Design View and drag its right edge outward. Save it, open it in Form View, take a look, and you'll be happy.
Now, your existing forms don't magically stretch themselves, so you have to decide what to enlarge and where the controls belong, but that's the basic idea. If you've been running out of room, now you've got more space available.
Now, here I am in my TechHelp free template. This is a free database you can grab off my website if you want to.
Now, just to show you what I mean, if you go into Design View and you open this guy up, now I keep my windows small intentionally because I only record my videos in a 720p window. But I've got a giant monitor on my desk, and a lot of my forms are really, really small when I have a really, really big monitor. So I love this feature.
Now, if you come all the way over here to the right and you scroll, let me bring this up so you can see the whole thing here. The old limit used to stop you at around 22 inches, I think it was, but now we can keep going. Just scroll out more and keep going, and scroll out more and keep going. I think they said it goes out to like 200 inches.
Now, you'll never need to go that far. Well, I shouldn't say never, but you can keep going. And then put some stuff out here, put a button or something way out here, and it'll save it.
All right. And you can close it and then open it back up again, and then it's way out there. Let me see if I can zoom out and show you better. There we go. I don't know if this will record right in the video, but I'll smash it together later and we'll see.
But here's my button way out here. Here's another form from earlier when I was playing around. Here's my customer form over on the left. I put a big bar chart here in the middle, a nice little pie chart over here, and it all fits and it all stretches across my monitor, and I'm a happy camper.
All right. Now, before you start building all these giant forms, everyone that uses the database has to have a supported version of Access with the new feature. So this is going to be for Microsoft 365. Obviously, you've got to have a subscription.
Microsoft lists version 2609 with the build number shown here or later as a starting point for this feature. Again, this is one of the benefits of getting the subscription as opposed to the perpetual versions, or 2021, 2024, and so on. With the subscription, not only do you get updated fixes and stuff, but you get all the new features as they come out, too.
And you can check your build number and your version under File, Account, and then About Access.
Now, Microsoft rolls these features out in stages. So having a recent build is worth checking, but the practical test is whether or not your copy actually lets you make the form bigger or not. I had this version for a couple days, but I still didn't have wide form support. Same thing happened to me with Form Zooming when they released that a few months ago, too. It's like, "No, I don't have it yet." And then when you do have it, you wake up and it's like Christmas.
But again, if you're using an older version or the one-time purchase version of Access, then you're not going to get this form thing. And if your office manages your updates, then you're going to have to check with whoever handles that. And I've talked to the IT guys. We love doing that.
Now, what can you do with this extra space? Well, you can make a dashboard that shows your sales. Like I just showed you, put your customer sales right next to their info, and it's right there at a glance.
Put some modern charts on there. It's tough to do that when everything's packed together in the tiny little space, but now that you've got more room, it's like having a bigger house. You get more junk to fill the house. Trust me. I've learned that. I've learned that the hard way a couple times, too.
With more design space, you can spread stuff out and, well, you can leave some room for other information, too. And make fonts bigger. I know as I'm getting older, I like everything to be bigger without having to zoom in. But you can make everything easier to read. You can see the labels better and compare numbers more comfortably.
Another way to use the wide displays is to keep a few different parts of your work visible at the same time with side-by-side forms. Maybe you've got a customer on one side, an order on the other, that kind of thing. Like I always show with the overlapping forms. Well, now you've got more room to work with those.
Now, you still have to be careful with form positioning. You still can't position forms and save their location too far to the right. We're going to talk more about this in the extended cut. There are some tricks you can do.
And of course, you'll need to be using overlapping windows instead of tab documents in order to have them side by side like this. So check this video out if you're not familiar with that. If you need help on embedding some charts in your forms, check this video out.
Now, before you go sharing bigger forms, again, check that it'll work on the other person's computer if you're sharing your database with other people. Because a form that goes beyond the old limits will need a version of Access that supports the larger form dimensions. If their copy doesn't support big forms, it's not going to open the expanded form.
So I'd suggest keeping a backup copy of your forms just in case. Then change the design and maybe call the new one Customer F Big or whatever, or Customer Big F, or Big Customer F, or one of those. Put big in there somewhere.
Test the form on the computers they're actually going to use them on. Make sure everyone's got that new version. And then also look at the screen itself because a layout that looks great on your big monitor might be awkward on a laptop or on someone else's screen.
Check the text size, the display scaling, the buttons, anything off to the side. Because I've made databases before and they look great on my big monitor, and then I open them up on my laptop and I'm like, "Oh, wait a minute. That's not right." So that's where the zoom feature comes in handy.
A bigger canvas doesn't automatically rearrange everything for a smaller window. So give people the space they need while keeping the form comfortable to use.
All right. Now, in the extended cut for the members, we're going to walk through the VBA for working with large forms and positioning their controls. We'll also look at the limitations that you can still run into with older layout code, including the 32,000-ish-twip positioning limit.
And if you don't know what twips are, well, I'm going to talk about it in the extended cut. I'll also show you some tricks for lining up multiple wide forms beyond that limit. So you can make better use of a really wide display.
And that's going to be some developer-level material. What you saw in today's basic demonstration can be done without writing any code. But that's what's coming up in the extended cut for the members.
Silver members and up get access to all of my extended cuts, including this one and lots more. And everybody gets some free lessons. So click that blue Join button for more information.
All right, so there you go. Now you've got big forms, and you know how Access can give you much more room for your dashboards, and why you should also check anybody else's database version before sharing your big forms. And then you've got to get a support call that says, "Hey, this form won't open." Oh, okay. Now you know why.
That's going to be your TechHelp video for today. I hope you learned something. Live long and prosper, my friends. I'll see you next time, and members, I'll see you in the extended cut. Intro In this lesson, I will show you how to use big forms in Microsoft Access to create wider and taller form layouts for dashboards, charts, and other information. We will look at enlarging a form in Design View, using the extra space effectively, checking your Access version for support, and considering screen size and display scaling before sharing large forms with other users. Quiz Q1. What is the main benefit of the big forms feature in Microsoft Access?
A. It provides a larger design area for an individual form
B. It automatically converts all forms into reports
C. It removes the need for queries
D. It allows forms to store more records
Q2. How can you make an existing form larger using the big forms feature?
A. Change the form's record source
B. Open the form in Design View and drag its edge outward
C. Create a new table with wider fields
D. Increase the database file size limit
Q3. What happens to existing controls when you enlarge a form?
A. They automatically stretch to fill the form
B. They are deleted and must be recreated
C. They remain where they are unless you move or resize them
D. They are converted into labels
Q4. Which is a good use for the extra space available on a larger form?
A. Displaying dashboards, charts, and related information together
B. Replacing all tables with forms
C. Hiding records from users
D. Eliminating the need for navigation buttons
Q5. Why might larger forms be especially helpful for users?
A. They allow larger fonts and more readable layouts
B. They make all database files smaller
C. They remove the need to save changes
D. They prevent users from editing records
Q6. What should you verify before sharing a database containing expanded forms with another user?
A. That the other user has a version of Access that supports larger form dimensions
B. That the other user has the same printer installed
C. That the other user has administrator rights
D. That the other user has the same Windows wallpaper
Q7. What could happen if someone opens an expanded form using an unsupported copy of Access?
A. The form may not open
B. The form will automatically resize perfectly
C. The database will convert into a spreadsheet
D. The form will become read-only
Q8. Why is it a good idea to test a large form on the computers where it will actually be used?
A. Screen size, display scaling, and text size can affect the layout
B. Access forms always look identical on every display
C. Forms only work on large monitors
D. Testing automatically improves chart performance
Q9. What is one recommended way to protect yourself before redesigning a form to be much larger?
A. Keep a backup copy of the original form
B. Delete the original form immediately
C. Convert the form into a table
D. Remove all controls before resizing it
Q10. What setting is generally needed to display multiple Access forms side by side as separate windows?
A. Overlapping windows instead of tabbed documents
B. Datasheet View instead of Form View
C. Hidden Navigation Pane
D. Compact and Repair Database
Q11. Does making a form larger automatically rearrange its controls for smaller screens?
A. No, controls must still be arranged with different screen sizes in mind
B. Yes, Access automatically creates a responsive layout
C. Yes, but only for charts
D. No, because forms cannot be viewed on smaller screens
Q12. What is a practical use of placing forms side by side on a wide display?
A. Viewing customer information and related order information at the same time
B. Preventing users from opening more than one record
C. Replacing relationships between tables
D. Avoiding the use of queries
Answers: 1-A; 2-B; 3-C; 4-A; 5-A; 6-A; 7-A; 8-A; 9-A; 10-A; 11-A; 12-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks. Summary Today's video from Access Learning Zone covers a new Microsoft Access feature called big forms. This feature allows individual forms to use a much larger design area than was previously available. If you have a large widescreen monitor and your Access dashboards or forms feel cramped into a small section of the screen, big forms can give you considerably more room for charts, buttons, controls, and larger text.
You do not need VBA or advanced database development experience to use this feature. The basic process is simple. Open a form in Design View, expand the form's right or bottom edge, rearrange or add controls in the new space, save the form, and then open it in Form View. Existing forms will not automatically stretch or rearrange themselves, so you need to decide which forms should be enlarged and where the controls should go.
In the past, Access forms were limited to roughly 22 inches in width. With the new big forms feature, the design surface can extend much farther, reportedly up to approximately 200 inches. Most databases will never need a form anywhere near that large, but the extra space is useful when working with wide dashboards, customer summaries, charts, graphs, and other displays that benefit from having information spread across a wider screen.
For example, you might place customer information on the left side of a form, a large bar chart in the center, and a pie chart or additional summary information on the right. This can create a much more useful dashboard, especially when you are working on a large monitor. Instead of forcing everything into a narrow area, you can arrange the information so it is easier to read and compare.
Big forms are especially helpful for dashboards. You can place sales totals, customer details, charts, and other important information together on one wide form. Modern charts can take up a substantial amount of room, and previously it could be difficult to fit them comfortably beside other controls. With additional design space, you can keep related information visible without making controls too small.
The feature can also help improve readability. As screens get larger, users often prefer larger fonts, labels, and buttons. A wider form gives you the ability to increase text sizes and leave more white space between controls. This can make the database more comfortable to use, especially for users who do not want to constantly zoom in or strain to read small labels.
Another possible use is to arrange multiple parts of your database side by side. For example, you might display a customer form on one side of the screen and an order form on the other. This works best when you use overlapping windows rather than tabbed documents. Wide monitors can make this type of workspace much more practical, although you still need to be careful about how forms are positioned and saved.
Before you begin creating large forms, it is important to understand that this feature requires a supported version of Microsoft Access. It is available through Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which receive ongoing feature updates. Microsoft has indicated that Access version 2609 and the associated build number, or later, is required for big form support.
You can check your Access version and build number by going to File, Account, and About Access. However, Microsoft often rolls out new features gradually, so having a recent version does not always guarantee that the feature is immediately available. The practical test is to open a form in Design View and see whether Access allows you to expand the form beyond the old width limit.
This is one advantage of using a Microsoft 365 subscription instead of a perpetual version such as Access 2021 or Access 2024. Subscription versions receive not only security updates and fixes, but also new features as Microsoft releases them. Older one-time purchase versions of Access will not receive this new big forms capability.
If your organization manages Office updates centrally, you may need to contact your IT department to find out whether your installed version supports large forms and whether updates are being deployed. This is particularly important if you are developing a database for multiple users.
Before sharing a database containing expanded forms, make sure every user who will open those forms has a version of Access that supports the larger form dimensions. A form that extends beyond the previous limits may not open properly on an older version of Access. It is a good idea to keep backup copies of your original forms before enlarging them. You might also save a separate version of a form with a name such as CustomerFBig, BigCustomerF, or another name that clearly identifies it as the larger version.
You should also test the forms on the actual computers and monitors your users will be using. A form that looks excellent on a large widescreen display may not be convenient on a laptop or a smaller monitor. Check font sizes, display scaling, control placement, buttons, and any information positioned far to the side. Big forms provide more design space, but they do not automatically adjust themselves to smaller screens.
The form zoom feature can help users who are working with smaller displays, but it does not automatically redesign a wide form for them. When creating large layouts, consider how much horizontal space your users have available and make sure the important controls remain practical and accessible.
Also, in today's Extended Cut, we will look at VBA considerations when working with large forms and positioning controls on them. We will discuss the limitations that can still affect older form-positioning code, including the approximate 32,000-twip positioning limit. I will explain what twips are and why that limit matters when placing forms or controls far across a widescreen display. I will also cover techniques for lining up multiple wide forms beyond that limitation so you can make better use of a large monitor.
The basic big forms feature does not require programming. You can enlarge a form and place controls in the additional area entirely through Design View. However, if you use VBA to position forms, move controls, or manage window locations, you should be aware of the older limits that may still affect that code.
Big forms can give your Access dashboards and data-entry screens much more room to breathe. They are useful for wide charts, customer dashboards, larger controls, side-by-side information, and layouts that are easier to read on modern widescreen monitors. Just make sure everyone who uses the database has a compatible version of Access, and always test your forms on the types of displays your users will actually have.
You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends. Topic List Big forms feature in Microsoft Access
Expanding form design area in Design View
Using large forms for dashboards and charts
Adding controls in expanded form space
Checking Access version support for big forms
Testing large forms on other computers
Designing for different screen sizes and scaling Article Microsoft Access now supports larger form dimensions, giving you more room to design dashboards, display charts, and spread information across a wide-screen monitor. This is especially useful when a standard-sized form feels cramped or when you want important information visible at the same time without reducing font sizes.
Big forms do not require VBA or special programming. You can enlarge a form directly in Design View. Open the form in Design View, scroll to the right edge of the design area, and drag the form boundary farther outward. You can also increase the form height if needed. After saving the form, open it in Form View to see the larger layout.
Existing forms will not automatically stretch or rearrange their controls. Enlarging the design area simply gives you more empty space to work with. You decide what should go into that space and where it should be placed. For example, you might keep customer details on the left side of a form and place a large sales chart beside them. You could add a pie chart, summary totals, important buttons, or other dashboard-style information across the rest of the form.
The expanded design area can be much wider than the older form-size limitations. Most forms will never need anywhere near the maximum available width, but the additional room is useful on large monitors. It allows you to create forms that take advantage of modern wide-screen displays rather than confining all controls to a narrow section of the screen.
Wide forms are particularly helpful for dashboards. You can place related information side by side instead of forcing users to switch between multiple forms or tabs. A customer form, for example, could include contact information, recent orders, sales totals, charts, notes, and action buttons in one workspace. Larger layouts can also make text, labels, buttons, and data easier to read. This can be valuable when users prefer larger fonts or when the form contains information that must be compared at a glance.
Another practical use is working with multiple forms at the same time. If Access is configured to use overlapping windows instead of tabbed documents, you can arrange separate forms side by side. You might keep a customer form open on one side of the screen and an order-entry form on the other. A wider display gives you more room for this arrangement, although there are still limitations related to where Access can save a form's on-screen position.
Before designing large forms for shared databases, make sure all users have a copy of Access that supports the larger form dimensions. Microsoft releases features gradually, so even users with recently updated installations may not receive a feature at exactly the same time. The simplest test is practical: open a form in Design View and see whether its boundaries can be expanded beyond the previous limit.
You can check information about your Access installation by opening File, Account, and then About Access. If updates are controlled by an organization, you may need to ask the person or department responsible for software updates whether the feature is available.
This compatibility check is important because a form that exceeds the older size limits may not open correctly on a computer with an older or unsupported copy of Access. If you are distributing a database to other people, test the enlarged form on the actual computers they will use. It is also wise to keep a backup of the original form before enlarging it. You can duplicate the form and give the larger version a clearly recognizable name so that the original remains available if compatibility problems occur.
Also consider the size and resolution of each user's monitor. A dashboard that looks excellent on a large desktop display may be difficult to use on a laptop or smaller monitor. Screen scaling, text size, and available display width can all affect the layout. Controls placed far to the right may require users to scroll, and large charts may not be visible without resizing the Access window.
A larger form canvas does not automatically make a layout responsive. Access will not rearrange controls for a smaller window the way a modern web page might. Design the form so that essential controls remain convenient to use, and avoid placing critical buttons or fields so far to the side that users with smaller displays cannot reach them comfortably.
If you later use VBA to manage wide forms, the code should focus on positioning forms and controls safely within Access's remaining coordinate limits. Older positioning methods can still encounter limits based on twips, which are small measurement units used internally by Access. Code may also need to account for different monitor sizes, display scaling, and the placement of multiple forms across a wide screen. The goal is to position forms reliably without trying to save them beyond the ranges Access can handle.
Large forms give Access developers and database users more flexibility. They make it easier to create readable dashboards, show charts beside related records, display more information at once, and take better advantage of modern wide-screen monitors. Just remember to test the design on the systems where it will actually be used and keep compatibility in mind before sharing the database. Primary Topics Access big forms feature, expanding form design dimensions, wide dashboard layouts, placing charts beside form data, large-monitor usability, compatibility when sharing databases Secondary Topics Design View resizing, Form View display, screen resolution and scaling, overlapping windows, tabbed documents, form zooming, form backup strategy |
