Access 2003 forms - couple of queries ...

[Brian Pearson]

[I'm writing as a recent, and I know belated, convert from Access 2,
in which I have plenty of experience: in Access 2003, I'm back to the
beginning again so could do with some assistance.]


Can anyone explain what seem - to me - to be a couple of oddities with
the way that Access 2003 handles form switching ...

1. When I switch one form to Design mode, all others forms close. This
only happens if the form I open in design mode is a full screen form
(ie not a popup form). It occurs whether I switch from form view to
design view, or move to the database window and open any (full screen)
form in design view. In either case, all other open forms abruptly
close. This is fantastically annoying and I can't believe it's meant
to be like this.


2. When I close an open full screen form there is a visible 'flash' as
it switches back to the next form in the stack. This is caused by the
menubar on the second form briefly disappearing and then being
repainted. As this happens the entire form shunts up and then down
again to accommodate the menubar. Incredibly distracting! It didn't
happen in Access 2, and it doesn't happen if I merely switch between
the forms, rather than closing one of them.

Any suggestions would be very gratefully received. Thank you.


Brian Pearson
Mace Limited
London

 

[John Vinson]

[I'm writing as a recent, and I know belated, convert from Access 2,
in which I have plenty of experience: in Access 2003, I'm back to the
beginning again so could do with some assistance.]


Can anyone explain what seem - to me - to be a couple of oddities with
the way that Access 2003 handles form switching ...

1. When I switch one form to Design mode, all others forms close. This
only happens if the form I open in design mode is a full screen form
(ie not a popup form). It occurs whether I switch from form view to
design view, or move to the database window and open any (full screen)
form in design view. In either case, all other open forms abruptly
close. This is fantastically annoying and I can't believe it's meant
to be like this.

It's not; and it doesn't do it for me! I'll routinely have two or
three forms open while I'm working on another one. The other forms
will of course be out of sight, "behind" the form that you're editing;
but you can optionally specify that open forms appear in the Windows
command bar.

2. When I close an open full screen form there is a visible 'flash' as
it switches back to the next form in the stack. This is caused by the
menubar on the second form briefly disappearing and then being
repainted. As this happens the entire form shunts up and then down
again to accommodate the menubar. Incredibly distracting! It didn't
happen in Access 2, and it doesn't happen if I merely switch between
the forms, rather than closing one of them.

Again, this isn't typical behavior. I wonder if there's something
messed up in your Access installation!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps

 

[bpearson]

John

Thanks for your response. It's reassuring to know that this isn't meant
to happen.

I've installed Access 2003 on two machines and the symptoms are
occurring on both of them so I have to conclude that it's more likely
to be something about my forms that makes them behave differently in
this version of Access, rather than in Access itself. I'll investigate
further to see what might be causing this.



Brian

[I'm writing as a recent, and I know belated, convert from Access 2,
in which I have plenty of experience: in Access 2003, I'm back to the
beginning again so could do with some assistance.]


Can anyone explain what seem - to me - to be a couple of oddities with
the way that Access 2003 handles form switching ...

1. When I switch one form to Design mode, all others forms close. This
only happens if the form I open in design mode is a full screen form
(ie not a popup form). It occurs whether I switch from form view to
design view, or move to the database window and open any (full screen)
form in design view. In either case, all other open forms abruptly
close. This is fantastically annoying and I can't believe it's meant
to be like this.

It's not; and it doesn't do it for me! I'll routinely have two or
three forms open while I'm working on another one. The other forms
will of course be out of sight, "behind" the form that you're editing;
but you can optionally specify that open forms appear in the Windows
command bar.

2. When I close an open full screen form there is a visible 'flash' as
it switches back to the next form in the stack. This is caused by the
menubar on the second form briefly disappearing and then being
repainted. As this happens the entire form shunts up and then down
again to accommodate the menubar. Incredibly distracting! It didn't
happen in Access 2, and it doesn't happen if I merely switch between
the forms, rather than closing one of them.

Again, this isn't typical behavior. I wonder if there's something
messed up in your Access installation!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps

 

[bpearson]

John, thanks for your reply.

I've now found the cause (though not the fix) for item 1 at least ...

In each of my main forms I have an embedded sub-form, which acts as
title strip and contains some links. It's the same sub-form which
appears on every main form.

I'm finding that switching any of these main forms into Design view
causes all other forms which contain the same sub-form to instantly
close. That certainly didn't happen in Access 2, and I'm not really
sure why it should happen in Access 2003.

[If I remove the sub-form from the main form, the problem disappears.
I've removed all CBF from the sub-form to see if it made a difference,
but it didn't.]

I'm still working on this to see if I can find a solution to this. I'd
certainly prefer not to have to have a dedicated sub-form for every
main form since there must be more than 30 of them and they'd all be
identical so it would be a significant waste of resources.



Brian

[I'm writing as a recent, and I know belated, convert from Access 2,
in which I have plenty of experience: in Access 2003, I'm back to the
beginning again so could do with some assistance.]


Can anyone explain what seem - to me - to be a couple of oddities with
the way that Access 2003 handles form switching ...

1. When I switch one form to Design mode, all others forms close. This
only happens if the form I open in design mode is a full screen form
(ie not a popup form). It occurs whether I switch from form view to
design view, or move to the database window and open any (full screen)
form in design view. In either case, all other open forms abruptly
close. This is fantastically annoying and I can't believe it's meant
to be like this.

It's not; and it doesn't do it for me! I'll routinely have two or
three forms open while I'm working on another one. The other forms
will of course be out of sight, "behind" the form that you're editing;
but you can optionally specify that open forms appear in the Windows
command bar.

2. When I close an open full screen form there is a visible 'flash' as
it switches back to the next form in the stack. This is caused by the
menubar on the second form briefly disappearing and then being
repainted. As this happens the entire form shunts up and then down
again to accommodate the menubar. Incredibly distracting! It didn't
happen in Access 2, and it doesn't happen if I merely switch between
the forms, rather than closing one of them.

Again, this isn't typical behavior. I wonder if there's something
messed up in your Access installation!

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps

 

[John Vinson]

In each of my main forms I have an embedded sub-form, which acts as
title strip and contains some links. It's the same sub-form which
appears on every main form.

Could you instead just have a block of Labels and/or unbound
textboxes, which you could copy and paste into each form? Is the
subform bound or unbound? If bound, what's it bound to?

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Join the online Access Chats
Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT
http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps

 

[bpearson]

You're right John, I guess I'll have to replace the sub-form with a set
of labels on each main form (I've found there are 31 such forms).

The benefit of having a single sub-form was that it was easy to place
everything in exactly the right place (ie only one item to position on
each form) and if I ever needed to amend the labels, I only had to do
it once. Plus there will now be an extra 300-odd controls to bloat the
system still further.

I guess that, somewhere between Access 2 and Access 2003, the handling
of multiple instances of sub-forms changed in some way. Such is
progress.

Thanks again for your help.



Brian