Access Forms can make data entry tasks handy for database users. Make an easy to understand database environment without uncovering the inner-workings of a database and give yourself peace of mind that your data is protected.

This instructional exercise will cover the MS Access Forms creation, modification, design control and form properties to give you control over your database design.

In this tutorial, we will make use of the open-source US Senators Contact Information Sheet. Download the file and unzip it to a folder on your computer.

We need to import our database before we can create our Access Form.

Open Access 2016 and select Blank database.

A pop-up window will display, asking you to name the blank database. Enter the database name, save it in your preferred location, and click Create.

The new database will then be displayed. We will be using an xml file from the folder we’ve downloaded earlier. Click the External Data tab then click New Data Source drop-down option. Select From File and click XML File.

Browse to the location you unzipped the file and click OK to import to our new database.

The left-hand column shows your available database objects. You should now see our imported data objects contact_information and member.

Double-click to open member. Your database fields should now be populated with US Senator contact information.

Access Forms tutorial

Access Forms are customisable design objects which provide an accessible database experience to database end-users.  A well-designed form can support efficiency and enhance data entry accuracy, so it’s worth learning the fundamentals like Tables to save yourself time editing errors.

Click the Create tab then choose Form.

MS Access will default to a basic form for our chosen table, showed in Layout View.

Click Save in the Home tab to save the form.

You have created an extremely basic, visually unattractive form but this shapes the foundation of our customisable database interface. It is also worth observing the different design options accessible in the Form Layout Tools context tab. This is where the design tools can be found:

• Instant theme changes
• Colour and font selections
• Header and footer options
• Additional field creation
• Form controls: buttons, navigation tools, lists, menus and subforms.