How to force a form footer to be very short (Access 2003)

[javaguy]

I'm creating an unbound Access form, and part of my method uses about
20 hidden text boxes to store data. These boxes are used by my
utility code, and is never visible to the user.

In the footer I created the text boxes, with labels, to describe and
display the data for debugging purposes. The current form height is
4.0 inches.

I'm now ready to finish off the form for consumer use. I want the
footer to display as a 0.5 inch object. In effect, these now
invisible (property Visible = False for every field and label of this
bunch) text boxes are supposed to be off the bottom of the displayed
form.

I'm not getting where I want to go. Access is insisting that the
fields, even when they are invisible, still occupy footer real estate
and wants the footer to be 4.0 inches tall. It gets this height by
stealing from the detail space (that is, form detail height is always
form height - header height - footer height).

Is there something I'm missing about how to get exactly what I want?
If there isn't, then I will have to compress these 20 text boxes into
a tiny area and expand them again when I'm doing debugging.

Thanks in advance,
Jerome.

 

[Guest]

Why not set the formfooter to visible=false. Just a property you can set with
the properties from the form.

 

[javaguy]

Because I wish to put navigation controls in the footer. When I
design a new form, I cut & paste the entire footer to the new form.

Well...I don't *have* to do that. But I'd have to have the navigation
buttons in the Detail section, and the hidden fields in the footer.
There also is a style instruction I must currently conform to, where
the footer is used as an advertisement. So if the footer will be
displayed, I'll have to keep it short.

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

In

I'm creating an unbound Access form, and part of my method uses about
20 hidden text boxes to store data. These boxes are used by my
utility code, and is never visible to the user.

In the footer I created the text boxes, with labels, to describe and
display the data for debugging purposes. The current form height is
4.0 inches.

I'm now ready to finish off the form for consumer use. I want the
footer to display as a 0.5 inch object. In effect, these now
invisible (property Visible = False for every field and label of this
bunch) text boxes are supposed to be off the bottom of the displayed
form.

I'm not getting where I want to go. Access is insisting that the
fields, even when they are invisible, still occupy footer real estate
and wants the footer to be 4.0 inches tall. It gets this height by
stealing from the detail space (that is, form detail height is always
form height - header height - footer height).

Is there something I'm missing about how to get exactly what I want?
If there isn't, then I will have to compress these 20 text boxes into
a tiny area and expand them again when I'm doing debugging.

I think I understand what you're trying to do, and it won't work that
way. The footer must always be big enough to contain the controls that
are present on it, even if they're invisible. Workarounds I could think
of are:

1. (As you suggested) Shrink the controls to minimal height, or even
give them a height of 0, and then have code to expand them when you want
to see them for debugging.

2. Keep the controls at minimal sizes, but have a popup form that you
can open that has text boxes to display the values from the form. You'd
use controlsource expressions that refer to the original form.