Adding a Command Button to a Form

As we saw earlier, we have a form called frmDepartmentsAndFaculty that shows each department and the faculty assigned to it. We also have a report, rptDepartmentsWithFaculty, that shows the same information. It's helpful to have both, as one can be used to enter data, and the other can be used to create a snapshot of the data at a certain point of time.

However, we want to make it easier to move from the form to the report. We can add a button on our form to launch the report. In Access, this is called a command button. Let's create a command button on the form that will allow us to view and print the entire Departments with Faculty report.

Step1. To open the form directly into Design View, in the Navigation pane,

Right-Click frmDepartmentsAndFaculty, Click Design View

The form opens in Design View.

Let's add the button at the bottom of the detail section, just above the bar labeled Form Footer. It doesn't look like there's enough space, but Access will expand the section to make room for the command button.

Step2. To select the command button tool, in the Controls group,

Click

Step3. To add the command button, in the bottom of the form, just above Form Footer,

Click to place the button

You see the Command Button Wizard:

The categories on the left allow us to choose the type of action we want to assign to our button. Each category has a list of specific actions that we can choose from. We want the button to open the Department and Faculty report; this action is in the Report Operations category.

Step4. To set the category, in Categories list,

Click Report Operations

We see a list of various commands we can choose in this category for opening a report. We could choose Print Report to send it directly to a printer, but we will want to preview it first to verify its accuracy.

Step5. To set the button action to open the report preview, in the Actions list,

Click Preview Report

Step6. To move to the next screen in the wizard,

Click

We see a list of reports we can select from.

Step7. To select the report we want and move to the next screen,

Double-Click rptDepartmentsWithFaculty

We see options for displaying text or an image on the command button. While an image can be visually appealing, it may not be clear to everyone, and it isn't accessible. We will therefore tell Access to put text on the button.

Step8. To add text to the button, in the Text: field,

Press & Drag the existing text, type: Run Report

Step 9. To continue,

Click

You see the last screen of the wizard.

Step10. To name the button and finish creating it, type:

cmdTranscriptReport Enter key

Now that we've added our button, we should make sure that it works correctly.

Testing the Command Button

To test the button, we need to be in Form view.

Step1. Switch back to Form view.

Step2. To launch the report in Print Preview mode, at the bottom of the form,

Click the Run Report button

You see the report in Print Preview mode:

We now see the report as it will look when printed. The layout, design, or data of a report cannot be changed in Print Preview. If we wanted to print this report, we could use the Print button on the Ribbon. We could also create a PDF using the PDF or XPS button:

Step3. Close the report.

We are back in the form we have been working in.

Step4. To save the form, type:

Control key + S

Step5. Close the form and any other open Access objects.

We see the Access window.

We will return to forms later in the workshop to show how to make a navigation form for your entire database, essentially making it function like a stand-alone application. But before we do that, we want to turn our attention to Reports, the other key tool in Access for building an intuitive interface for your users.