Aligning and Sizing Multiple Controls

You saw in the last lesson how to change properties for more than one control at a time. Now we will look at an alternative way to highlight more than one control and to align and size those controls once they have been highlighted.

The method of highlighting multiple controls using the Shift key is useful when you need to highlight some controls without highlighting others near it. When you want to select multiple controls in an area and are in a hurry, then you can use a drag-and-drop method:

1. Place the mouse at one corner of the controls to be highlighted.
2. Hold down the left mouse button.
3. Drag the cursor over to the opposite corner of the controls to be highlighted.
4. Release the mouse button.

The controls are now highlighted.

Once the controls are highlighted, you can align them by choosing Align from the Format menu. You will then have to make a choice. Some of the choices are Left, Right, Top, and Bottom. For sizing, the most commonly used choices are To Tallest, To Shortest, To Widest, and To Narrowest.
The steps to align or size multiple controls are:

1. Select all the controls to align/size.
2. Choose Align or Size from the Format menu.
3. Choose the option of the task you want to perform.

You can see how controls are affected by sizing and aligning by walking through the Slide Show below.

Aligning Multiple Controls
In the next lesson, you will learn how to modify the various form sections (headers, footers, and detail).