Tabbed forms in Access 2007

When you produce your first application in Access 2007 it might be a bit disconcerting to find that the forms always come up as filling the entire screen. If you try to open two forms then you find that Access displays them as a tabbed interface. There's nothing in the properties of the forms that will obviously make them come up as the familar floating, overlapping windows from all previous versions. The situation can be frustrating.

As with many other similar changes in Access 2007, the solution lies on the Access options screens. You'll find these if you click the main Office button in the top left corner of the Access screen. This brings up a dialog which has a button labelled Access Option in the bottom right of its window. Click this to open the Access 2007 Options dialog. More details and screenshots about Access 2007 options here.

When this dialog opens, select Current Database from the list of categories on the left. This will show the options that are set for the current database and you'll see that the Tabbed Documents option is selected. Click on Overlapping Windows instead then on OK to close the dialog.

The change to the appearance of the interface won't take effect until you close and reopen the database so click the Office button again and then the Exit Access button in the bottom right. Open the database again and your forms will revert to the familiar overlapping style.