Tips for designing layouts
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If your department or organization has a style guide, refer to it before you begin the design process.
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Use terminology consistently throughout your layouts and keep field labels concise.
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To help avoid a cluttered layout, keep in mind the layout’s purpose and add only the fields that are necessary.
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It is not necessary to put all of the fields on a layout in order for users to perform sorts on them.
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Decide if you intend the layout to be mainly used in Form View or Table View, especially if it will be used on an iOS device. For layouts to be used on an iOS device, choose one of the device themes in the New Layout/Report assistant or Change Theme dialog box. Then design the layout accordingly.
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Use tab controls to group fields that have relevance to each other and to indicate their connectedness. See Working with tab controls on layouts.
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Use layout parts appropriately to organize and summarize information. See About layout part types.
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In general, use a limited number of colors and fonts per layout. Use fonts consistently: assign one for headings, one for field labels, and one for field contents.
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Use sans serif fonts such as Verdana, Arial, and Trebuchet MS for high readability when viewing forms onscreen.
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Use serif fonts such as Times for forms that will be printed and for fields that will contain large amounts of text.
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Choose colors for text and backgrounds that provide enough contrast for easy readability. For example, light gray text on dark gray backgrounds is difficult to read, especially in poor lighting or with small font sizes. Light colors are suitable for headings but not for data entry fields.
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To make reading and navigating a layout easier and to enhance its overall appearance, be generous with the whitespace (empty space) between groups of fields.
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The Slice feature lets you take advantage of your existing image resources to quickly create a visual effect for a header, body, or footer part. For example, you want to add a custom color to the header part. You already have an image with an area that contains the color you want. Use the Slice feature to add the desired color to the header. For more information, see Filling an object or a layout part with an image.
For more information about designing layouts, see Best practices for designing layouts.
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