The form and report windows are visual design surfaces on which you position the components you need for your application. These can be invisible components, like data objects (queries, stored procedures, databases, sessions, and data module references) and visible components, like text, graphics, list boxes, check boxes, and so on.

In both designers, the work you do with the visual design elements is reflected in the underlying code and vice versa. Press F12 to switch between the design surface and code.

You can change the size and position of a designer window either by dragging the edges of the window or, if you need to be precise, by changing the values of height, left, top, and width in the Inspector.

By default, a grid appears when you start the Form and Report designers, and objects are constrained to line up along the grids (Snap To Grid). In addition, vertical and horizontal rulers appear.

Both designers have the following tools:

Component palette for dragging user-interface elements and data-access objects to the design surface

Field palette for dragging linked fields to the design surface

Inspector for setting properties and writing event handlers and other methods

Format toolbar for formatting Text objects

Alignment toolbar for aligning objects

Layout, Format, and Method menus

Status bar to show you your location on the design surface, show you what object is selected, and to give you instructions and other information

To display a tool window that’s not open, choose View|Tool Windows.