Left, Top Properties

Applies To ActiveX control, Bound Object Frame control, Chart control, Check Box control, Combo Box control, Command Button control, Image control, Label control, Line control, List Box control, Option Button control, Option Group control, Page, Page Break control, Rectangle control, Report, Subform/Subreport control, Tab control, Text Box control, Toggle Button control, Unbound Object Frame control.

Description

You can use the Left and Top properties to specify an object's location on a form or report. For example, you might want a control to be always positioned in the upper-right corner of a section.

Setting

A control's location is the distance measured from its left or top border to the left or top edge of the section containing the control. Setting the Left or Top property to 0 places the control's edge at the very left or top of the section. To use a unit of measurement different from the setting in the Regional Settings Properties dialog box in Windows Control Panel, specify the unit, such as cm or in (for example, 3 cm or 2 in).

In Visual Basic, use a numeric expression to set the value of this property. Values are expressed in twips.

For controls, you can set these properties by using a control's property sheet, a macro, or Visual Basic.

For reports, you can set these properties only by using a macro or event procedure in Visual Basic while the report is in Print Preview or being printed.

Remarks

When you move a control, its new Left and Top property settings are automatically entered in the property sheet. When you view a form or report in Print Preview or when you print a form, a control's location is determined by its Left and Top property settings along with the margin settings in the Page Setup dialog box, available by clicking Page Setup on the File menu.

For reports, the Top property setting is the amount the current section is offset from the top of the page; the Left property setting is the amount the current section is offset from the left edge of the page. Both property settings are expressed in twips. You can use these properties to specify how far down the page you want a section to print in the section's Format event procedure.

See Also Height, Width properties.

Example

The following example checks the Left property setting for the current report. If the value is less than the minimum margin setting, the NextRecord and PrintSection properties are set to False (0). The section doesn't advance to the next record, and the next section isn't printed.

Sub Detail1_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
Const conLeftMargin = 1880
' Don't advance to next record or print next section
' if Left property setting is less than 1880 twips.
    If Me.Left < conLeftMargin Then
        Me.NextRecord = False
        Me.PrintSection = False
    End If
End Sub