Make a control read-only

1. Open a form, report, or data access page in Design view.
2. Make sure that the control is selected, and then click Properties on the Form Design, Report Design, or Page Design toolbar to open its property sheet.
3. In a form or report, do one of the following:
   • If you want to disable the control completely so that it's dimmed and can't receive the focus, set the Enabled property to No.
   • If you want to make data in the control readable, but not allow users to change the data, set the Locked property to Yes. If you set the Enabled property to No and the Locked property to Yes, the control won't appear dimmed, but it won't be able to receive the focus.

   In a data access page, to disable the control completely so that it's dimmed and can't receive the focus, set the Disabled property to True.

Tip

In a form or report, you can use the Enabled property together with the AfterUpdate property to disable a control until a user enters text or makes a selection in another control. For example, you might want to disable a command button until data has been entered in a text box. You can use the AfterUpdate property of the text box to call an event procedure or a macro to enable the command button.