Can I put Toolbars on forms?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robin
  • Start date Start date
R

Robin

Hi

Is there a way to attach a standard 'Office' type toolbar to a form, such
that it appears *on* the form and not at the top of the application area?

Regards

Robin
 
Robin said:
Hi

Is there a way to attach a standard 'Office' type toolbar to a form,
such that it appears *on* the form and not at the top of the
application area?
Regards

Robin
Click to expand...

No, but it's pretty easy to fake it with buttons, labels, and shortcut
menus.
 
Hi Rick

Yep - I'm already doing the fake bit with MouseMove/Up/Down, but it's time
consuming with 4 images for each button. Just hoped there was a quicker
way.

Thanks anyway.

Regards

Robin
 
Robin said:
Hi Rick

Yep - I'm already doing the fake bit with MouseMove/Up/Down, but it's
time consuming with 4 images for each button. Just hoped there was a
quicker way.

Thanks anyway.
Click to expand...

Why "4 images for each button" and why use MouseMove/Up/Down?

I mean you don't need all of the mouse-over eye-candy of a real Windows Menu
bar. Just use labels with code in their click event and/or command buttons
sized to look like toolbar buttons. The labels can be given a
HyperLinkSubAddress entry of a single space so that you get the "pointing
hand" on hover if you like.
 
Rick Brandt said:
Why "4 images for each button" and why use MouseMove/Up/Down?
Click to expand...

4 images - normal, mouse over, mouse down and disabled...
I mean you don't need all of the mouse-over eye-candy of a real Windows
Menu bar. Just use labels with code in their click event and/or command
buttons sized to look like toolbar buttons. The labels can be given a
HyperLinkSubAddress entry of a single space so that you get the "pointing
hand" on hover if you like.
Click to expand...
I understand what you're saying (other parts of the same database are done
this way) and I know from a functional viewpoint you don't *need* the
'eye-candy' bit but I have my reasons for making this look spectacular
(client is just a couple of steps removed from BG and 'somebody' thought the
eye candy was important in Windows GUI), and it does look exactly like a
Windows toolbar!

At about an hour a button (playing around with Paint and Picture IT) it's
still worth it to me in this case. Just wished there was a quicker way :-)

An example:
http://www.claruslumen.com/sample/Toolbar.zip

Regards

Robin
 
Robin said:
I understand what you're saying (other parts of the same database are
done this way) and I know from a functional viewpoint you don't
*need* the 'eye-candy' bit but I have my reasons for making this look
spectacular (client is just a couple of steps removed from BG and
'somebody' thought the eye candy was important in Windows GUI), and
it does look exactly like a Windows toolbar!

At about an hour a button (playing around with Paint and Picture IT)
it's still worth it to me in this case. Just wished there was a
quicker way :-)
Click to expand...

What I do for "form menus" is have one label "Menu" or a graphic that when
clicked on displays a shortcut menu with everything else. You basically get
a vertical menu rather than a horizontal one, but it consumes very little
form real estate and the shortcut menu allows you to have cascading
sub-menus.
 
Rick Brandt said:
What I do for "form menus" is have one label "Menu" or a graphic that
when clicked on displays a shortcut menu with everything else. You
basically get a vertical menu rather than a horizontal one, but it
consumes very little form real estate and the shortcut menu allows you to
have cascading sub-menus.
Click to expand...
That sounds very useful, although I guess my horizontal menu doesn't use
that much space (my vba probably uses a disproportionate amount of CPU time
though).

In this particular case, eye-candy and a 'homage' to Windows GUI (Outlook in
this example), is probably more important.

Regards

Robin
 
Robin said:
That sounds very useful, although I guess my horizontal menu doesn't
use that much space (my vba probably uses a disproportionate amount
of CPU time though).

In this particular case, eye-candy and a 'homage' to Windows GUI
(Outlook in this example), is probably more important.

Regards
Click to expand...

My biggest problem when trying to do what you are is that MouseMove is really a
terrible event for trying to do the hover stuff. You have to jump through hoops
to make it not fire the code for every pixel of movement and if you move off the
control too quickly you never get the chance to change the visual affect back.
If Access had a REAL MouseOver or MouseOn/MouseOff then that would be handy. As
it is there are too many ways to "break" MouseMove and then that looks really
bad to the user.
 
Rick Brandt said:
My biggest problem when trying to do what you are is that MouseMove is
really a terrible event for trying to do the hover stuff. You have to
jump through hoops to make it not fire the code for every pixel of
movement and if you move off the control too quickly you never get the
chance to change the visual affect back.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. I've used MouseOver elsewhere in this database and had
to create a variable to store the most recent MouseOver event. When moving
the mouse a few pixels fires the same event, the event procedure checks the
variable first to see if it's still the same event - and does nothing if it
is. Otherwise areas of the form flicker continuously as the mouse is moved.
It doesn't seem to happen with images - only with text.

And it's easy to move the mouse too quickly such that the MouseOver effect
is not cleared. Making the form detail MouseOver event cancel all effects
everywhere, catches most of it, but it's still possible to drag the mouse
completely off the form and the effect is not cancelled until the mouse is
moved back.

I wonder if this is improved in Access 2007 - I haven't tried it yet.

Regards

Robin
 
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