Accurately aligning text boxes on Access form.

[Miles R]

I have a continuous form with several text boxes side by side. I want them to touch each other with no space between.
The first is Left 0", Width 3.6" and I want the next to be Left 3.6", Width 1"
However, when I try to set the position of the second box to 3.6" it sets it as 3.6146".


There is a minute gap between the boxes and I can see a tiny dot between them on the form.
The boxes have Solid Hairline border and I have set the Left and Right Margin to zero, but this does not seem to make any difference.

One more curious thing - when I click on any of the boxes in design mode, there is a dotted line around both - as if they are connected somehow - see attached image. Can't explain this either.

[June7]

The dotted line means these controls are in a grouped layout. Form and report build wizards do this by default. If you want to remove, select all controls in group by clicking the cross in upper left then over any control right click > Layout > Remove Layout.

I have no problem setting these Left and Width specs.

[Micron]

Tips for when controls are selected in design view and are not part of a layout group:
- you can make small position moves with arrow keys
- you can make much smaller moves with ctrl + arrow keys
- you can make small width/height changes with Shift + arrow keys
- you can make much smaller width/height changes with Shift+Ctrl+arrow keys

I don't know if the grid settings have any effect when doing this - I have my grid set at the max as it affords me the most control when dragging controls.

[davegri]

Save a ton of time. Use the provided tools:

[Miles R]

Thanks for all of your replies. Most helpful. I was not aware of the grouping other than for Radio buttons etc.
I seem to have two boxes in a group and the rest not. I don't remember putting any in a group - perhaps it happened when I recently migrated from Office 2007 to Office 365.
Probably they should all be in a group - will research this further.
Anyway, when I removed the grouping, I found I could accurately set the second box to Left 3.6", so the extra 0.0146" seems to be something to do with the grouping.
So problem solved and will mark the thread closed.

Regarding the alignment and spacing tools, yes I use these a lot and they are very useful.
Always more to learn.