Align controls next to each other

[twgonder]

This has been driving me nuts for some time.


I have forms that have a row of text and combo boxes.
I work in a Windows region that uses cm for the grid, with 5 for Grid x and Grid Y

I want to perfectly align the right edge of one control to the left edge of the adjacent control using the arrow keys.
If I use left arrow, it moves the control too far to the left making it appear as an extra think border line between the controls, or a space/overlap.
Is there key combination that allows for finer control movement than just left arrow?
Or maybe an align feature that puts the controls right next to each other?

Thanks

[Minty]

Yes, simple - select all the controls you want to align, right click the edge of one of the controls .
Select the Align option in the right click menu.
Select Right, left top or bottom depending on where you want them to go.

Edit: If it's moving in big chunks press the ctrl key with the arrow keys to get a more granular movement, and/or turn off align to grid.

[twgonder]

The align right seemed to align them,
but it moved all the controls to the right.
I select them all again, and try to move all of them to the left, but they won't move left.
What am I not getting?

Update: Never mind, I figured out a label was banging against the left of the form
Not fun on a small laptop

[Minty]

There are occasions when a zoom function would be handy in design mode, but there are a 100 other things to improve in Access before that should hit the update list...

Not fun on a small laptop

Time for a second monitor???

[ArviLaanemets]

When you select a row of controls, and then set the align option for selection top or bottom, all controls in selection are aligned to top or bottom.
When you select a column of controls, and then set the align option for selection left or right, all controls in selection are aligned to left or right.

When you select e.g. a row of controls, and then set the align option for selection left or right, all controls in selection are aligned to left or right, and will be overlaying - i.e. most of them will be only partially visible.

[Minty]

When you select a row of controls, and then set the align option for selection top or bottom, all controls in selection are aligned to top or bottom.
When you select a column of controls, and then set the align option for selection left or right, all controls in selection are aligned to left or right.

When you select e.g. a row of controls, and then set the align option for selection left or right, all controls in selection are aligned to left or right, and will be overlaying - i.e. most of them will be only partially visible.

That last statement isn't true, unless the controls are already overlapping.
I have a simple gif file demonstrating it but the stupid forum software keeps renaming to a jpg, so it won't display properly.

[ArviLaanemets]

That last statement isn't true, unless the controls are already overlapping.

OK. Now I remember, that whenever wanted to rearrange controls in form e.g to be right aligned (columnwise), when there was the possibility of them partially overlapping after that, I had before aligning to correct the vertical positions for them to avoid this.

[twgonder]

As a final note, this is what I had to do to keep my sanity.
I have three rows in a search form. The first is textboxes for what to search, the second is a row of labels, and the third is a continuous form row of textboxes with the data searched for. On the second row are transparent command buttons in front of the labels to initiate sorting.

1. The first part of the trick is to remove all the labels from the property of the first row of textbox/comboboxes.
2. Then to align the first row to the left or right and position where wanted.
3. Next, I made the commands in the other three rows smaller than the corresponding columns in the first row and move a little to the right of where the first row control is positioned.
4. Select the four controls in the three rows for just one column, starting from the left. Align left and for size. Repeat for each column.
5. Select a row and size the same then align to top. Repeat for the other three rows of controls.
6. Resize the control buttons so that one can select the label underneath.
7. Put the labels back in the textbox/comboboxes controls property.

[Minty]

If you have a more modern version of Access you can automate a lot of this with Layout's when designing the form initially.
It will let you manoeuvre the fields around and automatically realign and resize the matching labels with them, ideal for tabular form layouts.

It takes a bit of getting used to and you need to adjust the padding settings in the tool bar to get them to budge up to each other, but is definitely quicker than doing it manually.

It wouldn't assist with your third row of boxes but a quick copy and paste once the initial layout was settled would still be a win.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...9-a67978b4ce5e