There are many ways to display data—and change the way data is displayed—in Access to be more productive. Among these are changing the order in which columns are displayed.

Here is a database table displaying a list of purchase order records.

To better visualize the information, we may wish to see the submitter adjacent to the record number. To move a column, first highlight it by selecting the column heading.

Then, left-click on the column header until you see a black line appear along the left side of the column indicating that it is ready to be moved. Then drag column to the desired location in the table view.

Another display function of Access is the ability to change font size, row (record) height, and column (field) width.

The easiest way to make basic changes to font size, color, positioning, etc. is to highlight the record to be changed and use the tool bar in the example above. Adjusting row height or column width involves a bit more. In the example below, the Job Title field is slightly too small for one of the titles.

To accommodate the longer title in that field, right-click the column header to open the dialog box in the example below.

Select “Field Width” and set the value to the desired width to accommodate the longer title as shown in the example below.