blinking control

[Guest]

how do I cause the forecolor on a control to blink

 

[Brian]

how do I cause the forecolor on a control to blink

Don't, just don't: flashing objects are not only cheap and nasty, but they
are a health risk for some users.

 

[Graham R Seach]

I don't know that I agree with you on this one Brian. Bright flashing lights
can adversely affect some people, but I don't believe flashing a line of
text a few times, or at least toggling its colour, is going to affect
anyone.

Microsoft's own GUI style guide (accessibility features), provides for
visual cueing in the form of popups and flashing.

AJ, to flash something on-screen, set the form's TimerInterval to 500 (which
equates to 1/2 second), then add code to the form's Timer() event to flash
the text a few times - 5 usually does it. When you've finished, set
TimerInterval to zero.

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia

 

[Brian]

I don't know that I agree with you on this one Brian. Bright flashing lights
can adversely affect some people, but I don't believe flashing a line of
text a few times, or at least toggling its colour, is going to affect
anyone.

Microsoft's own GUI style guide (accessibility features), provides for
visual cueing in the form of popups and flashing.

AJ, to flash something on-screen, set the form's TimerInterval to 500 (which
equates to 1/2 second), then add code to the form's Timer() event to flash
the text a few times - 5 usually does it. When you've finished, set
TimerInterval to zero.

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia

The briefest search on Google will turn up lots of information on this, as
would asking my epileptic partner. Anyway, why bother when it's such an
annoying and tacky trick?

 

[Graham R Seach]

Brian,

I stand corrected. However, the published lower frequency appears to be 2Hz,
so extending this to a safer 1.5Hz (TimerInterval = 666) should suffice.

If used judiciously, I don't believe this kind of highlighting to be tacky.

When I use it, which I'll admit is rare, I use 3 flash cycles only, at 2Hz.
But since learning of the 2Hz threshold, I'll change that to 1.5Hz in the
future, and perhaps drop the cycles to 2.

In any case, I now think the user should be given the option of disabling
the "feature".

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia

 

[Rick Brandt]

Brian,

I stand corrected. However, the published lower frequency appears to
be 2Hz, so extending this to a safer 1.5Hz (TimerInterval = 666)
should suffice.
If used judiciously, I don't believe this kind of highlighting to be
tacky.
When I use it, which I'll admit is rare, I use 3 flash cycles only,
at 2Hz. But since learning of the 2Hz threshold, I'll change that to
1.5Hz in the future, and perhaps drop the cycles to 2.

In any case, I now think the user should be given the option of
disabling the "feature".

I have used flashing a few times and it was always because that was what the
user wanted. Often I will just flash a border or alternate the colors neither
of which is quite as harsh looking as actually the visibility of the text
itself.

 

[Graham R Seach]

I never thought of flashing the border. What a good idea!

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia

 

[Arvin Meyer]

how do I cause the forecolor on a control to blink

No one has yet told you how. I reiterate the chance of setting off an
epileptic seisure is real.

Set the form's timer interval to an appropriate value (1000 would blink
every second). Then, In the timer event of the form:

Me![txtBlinkingText].Visible = Not(Me![txtBlinkingText].Visible)

Where [txtBlinkingText] is the name of the text box which you want to blink.
It's actually easier on the eye to use a 60/40 on/off.

Me.TimerInterval = 400 - (200*Me![txtBlinkingText].Visible )

would have it on screen for .6 seconds, and off for .4. BE CAREFUL!
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access