Drawing lines in Access

Lines are very useful in the design of forms and reports but it can be difficult to draw lines that are perfectly straight with the mouse. Lines that are nearly, but not quite, horizontal or vertical look bad because they have jagged steps along them.

There are three ways to make sure that your lines are exactly horizontal (or vertical). Two of them let you add a perfect line to a form or report, use the third when you want to correct a badly-drawn line.

Creating a new line

• Click on the line tool
• Click on the form or report.
• Access will create a short horizontal line on the form or report.
• Press SHIFT plus left or right cursor key to make the line longer or shorter.

Drawing a new line

• Click on the line tool.
• Press the SHIFT key.
• Hold it down whilst you draw the line.
• Access will draw a line that's exactly horizontal or vertical.

Adjusting an existing line

• Right-click on the line.
• Select Properties.
• The line has Height and Width properties. These define the size of a box on screen and the line runs diagonally across this box.
• Set the Height property to zero for a horizontal line; set the Width property to zero for a vertical line.