How To Open Your MS Access Form In Full Screen – Find Out The 10 Key Properties Required

Once upon a time, you loaded your Access database, found the login form (screen), and navigated between other related objects. In reality, this was not always the case, but general users of Microsoft Access certainly compromised with this approach when designing a database, leaving the end user clueless and unmotivated in using the enterprise application.

To help streamline their application by making it easier to use and more conducive to use, real database developers took advantage of the many properties in Access, which also included the form’s property sheet.

In this article, I want to cover the 10 key properties required, and when synced together, they form a seamless home screen environment as the login form loads in a full screen mode, removing any tempting and unwanted elements. This approach ends up with a polished, professional look that’s highlighted with simple but optional automation using Access VBA code and an automated macro.

Design your form by adding all the components in the normal way as if the form were called manually, and then save your changes before changing any key properties. In addition to the standard controls for your login form, make sure you’ve added a ‘Close’ command button and it’s coded to close the form.

Next, let’s add the 10 key properties:

1. Auto Resize – This property is set to ‘Yes’ and will automatically resize the form as it loads.
2. Auto Center – This property is also set to ‘Yes’ and will be centered if the form does not fully load in a full screen view, which can be a desired effect if developers want to resize a form. This will sit comfortably with the first property mentioned.
3. Border Style – Ideally set this property to ‘Dialog’, although it can also be set to ‘None’ as you will be in a full screen view. The ‘Dialog’ option simply follows the rules for when a screen has focus, the user can optionally control the movement and size of a form.
4. Control Box – Set this property to ‘No’ to disable the ability to display a window’s control menu (ie the icon in the top left corner of a window).
5. Min Max Buttons – Also set to ‘None’ to prevent users from resizing the window to a minimized, restored, or maximized state.
6. Close Button – Set this property to ‘No’ to disable the ‘x’ icon in a window which will of course close the form. This should only be disabled if you have an alternative way to close a form (ie the command button mentioned above).
7. Popup – This property is set to ‘Yes’ to ensure that this form has focus and is visible on top of any previously opened forms (if applicable).
8. Modal – Should be set to ‘Yes’ and will behave like a real dialog so that users cannot exit this form until they use an alternate way to formally close it.
9. Title: This property is the title of the title bar, which can be anything you want to display at the top of the form. I tend to use this for the database title along with some clever coding to welcome the logged in user (if applicable) or just leave it blank.
10. Allow Datasheet, PivotTable, and Chart Views – The three properties considered as a collection here are set to ‘No’ as you only want to display the default view set to ‘Single Form’.

Now the simple VBA code must be attached to the form’s On Load event by adding DoCmd.Maximize between the sub and sub ending signature which will turn your form into a full screen view showing all the clean elements of the form in all their glory.

The final and optional part is to add a macro called ‘AutoExec’ (a specially reserved macro name) that is called when the database file is loaded. In this macro, add the ‘open form‘ action to call your form.

Hopefully, you have the essentials in place to which you can now add more refinement to taste. Happy forever!