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Identifying the Record Selected on a Continuous Form

Today’s guest blogger is Edwin Blancovitch. Edwin is president of Advanced Developers.net, creators of Easy Payroll, a software package to manage your human resources, payroll, scheduling, time and attendance needs.

Regularly when we create databases for our customers we use continuous forms for data entry. The problem is, it’s often difficult for users to identify the record they’re working on a big continuous form with tons of records.

I’ve found a way to overcome this in just a few just quick steps that I’d like to share with you guys.

This is fully compatible with previous versions of Access, because I have been doing this my whole life. Actually, I just found it by mistake, while trying to create a conditional formatting event. We can do this with conditional formatting but this method is easier.

  1. First select the continuous form.
  2. Set the Back Color of all the controls in the detail section of the form to the color that you want to be displayed when the user clicks the control. In this example, I’m using #ADC0D9.
  3. Set the Back Style property of all the controls in the detail section of the form to Transparent.

Now, when you display the object in form view you will see the selected control highlighted with the color you have selected in the Back Color property of the control.

BackColor_02

YEAH, now all your users can easily identify the current selected record and even the selected control where the cursor is. That’s all, no code, no difficult conditional format to configure.

You can download a sample database that illustrates this method here.

Send your Power Tips to Mike and Chris at accpower@microsoft.com.
Posted: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 12:03 AM by Mike Stowe
Filed under: ,

Comments

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Off-topic: Will there be an option to switch Ribbon off for a classic menu in A2010? And classic database window, please... Even after more than one year I§m not familiar with Ribbon and Navigation Pane. It costs me a lot of time to search in Ribbon since A2007 help is not of any help.

# October 8, 2009 2:12 PM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Unfortunatelly, this method is out of use in my case when I use my own BackColor scheme to identify different types of fields.

# October 8, 2009 2:16 PM

Clint Covington said:

There isn't a classic ribbon mode for any of the office 2010 applications.

# October 9, 2009 1:30 AM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Ribbon is one of the reasons for stopping development in Access in our company.

# October 9, 2009 3:03 AM

Data Entry Service said:

Not crazy about the ribbon myself.  

# October 12, 2009 8:39 AM

Edwin Blancovitch said:

I LOVE THE RIBBON.

Vladimir, I told you long time ago, I can build the ribbon for you, "FREE OF COST" and your app will look amazing, better than ever. . .why do you complain so much, the ribbon is a great upgrade to access apps, I think once you start with the ribbon you will not want to go back.

Go ahead, give it a try . . .

PD: if you need my help.

Edwin Blancovitch, President

Urb. El valle, Rosales # 40, Lajas PR 00667

www.advdev.net || www.easypayroll.net || www.creceonline.net || www.aprobadomusic.com

Phone/Fax : 787-899-7063 || Mobile: 787-528-2980

# October 13, 2009 1:58 PM

Edwin Blancovitch said:

I LOVE THE RIBBON

Vladimir, I have told you in the past, and now will tell you again, if you need help with the ribbon, there are plenty of tools for creating the ribbon, BUT if by any reason you cannot find a way to make it work for you, I can easily create one for you and the best of all “FREE OF COST”.

My friend I think once you start with the ribbon your app will look more modern and professional, and you will not want to go back.

Edwin Blancovitch, President

Urb. El valle, Rosales # 40, Lajas PR 00667

www.advdev.net || www.easypayroll.net || www.creceonline.net || www.aprobadomusic.com

Phone/Fax : 787-899-7063 || Mobile: 787-528-2980

# October 13, 2009 2:03 PM

Edwin Blancovitch said:

SORRY.

It was not my intention to write the message twice, it just happen that by some reason the post did not go through. . .

So i wrote it again, later i saw both posts. . .

Edwwin

# October 13, 2009 2:05 PM

Jenny Gielb said:

Thank you for that tip. It will make it easier for my users to identify selected records. I found, when I used it though, that any locked fields have to be enabled for the background colour to change.

# October 14, 2009 3:11 PM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Edwin: If you'll got through my posts you'll find my answer whatever it was. In fact I need to switch the Ribbon completely off since it consumes big portion of the screen so that I would have to re-design MANY forms... I'm not gonna do it, due to the lack of time.

I wanted to use QAT but: 1) It's buggy. 2) XML: complicated design in desing mode; need a lot of time to test XML. 3) Lack of VBA QAT Object.

P.S. I miss Ribbon Object in VBA... well, I would only use the following: Ribbon.HideForever... ;-)

P.P.S. Now there's another annoying thing is coming in Windows 7: bigger icons in taskbar. It will also consume some part of the screen. I'd like to ask MS programmers: please, think about existing application that might get in trouble due to new graphic design. Make it possible to switch to standard graphics, please. OTOH, programmers will have to spend some time just to re-design existing forms. I don't like to make changes in my program just for graphics.

# October 15, 2009 5:09 AM

Edwin Blancovitch said:

Vladimir. .

I think is a common practice to update your applications, in my company there are many reasons.

Many reasons will involve that the customer will ask for features that they will pay, but many features like graphics is due by you to your customers.

Now, you will need to tell your customers do not upgrade to windows 7 or windows vista because they are using graphics you do not support. That do not seem fair or logical to me, I think this is due to your customers, and you will need to face it now or in the future, that’s imminent.

So, go ahead, invest tine in the ribbon, install the new windows 7, play with it, take advantage of the new features, and be the first in your country to support it, be proud of your new Great interface, use new graphics, and be the best . . .

And of course, look great.

PD: once you implement the ribbon in your app, it will make it look great, and you will not want to go back.

Have your tried:

• DoCmd.ShowToolbar "Ribbon", acToolbarYes

• DoCmd.ShowToolbar "Ribbon", acToolbarNo

This will hide and show the ribbon for your access database. .

AND YOU CAN USE RIGHT CLICKS IN YOUR APPLICATION, THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE SPACE. . .

# October 15, 2009 6:59 AM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Edwin:

Thx for your response. Next time (Windows 8) will TaskBar consume one third of the screen. Everybody will have to re-design their forms again. That's stupid, definetely. As many other things from MS, eg. Windows Registry. All over the world milions of hours a year must be spent to re-install Windows due to the registry. That's too much time (= money).

To hide Ribbon I had a trick that I've found somewhere on the Internet about 13 months ago:

  If Application.CommandBars.Item("Ribbon").Height > 60 Then

     fSendKeys "^{F1}"

  End If

Have you tried DoCmd.ShowToolbar "Ribbon", acToolbarNo? IMHO, it's of no use since it lefts only one close button... to close an application instead of closing a form/report. Yeek...

P.S. Hope to have a new notebook with i7 & Windows 7... to continue my fight against MS graphics. :-)

We are really thinking to stop our development in Access. The decission is not to start any new project in Access 2007. The resons:

- incompatibility with previous versions of Access

- Ribbon & buggy QAT

- navigation pane

- poor help

- old bugs remain in new versions of Access

See http://www.alis.cz/relax/download/access/Access2007_bugs.rar.

# October 15, 2009 3:17 PM

Anthony Moore said:

It's interesting that you are upgrading you Operating Systems, and Software, but not updating your displays that support a higher resolution and more desktop space.

Perhaps you should spend some time using the higher resolution screens that are available rather then requesting holding back development of a feature that the entire office suite (and operating systems) use.

Not to mention, as it stands people complain about the bloat of applications from microsoft not at least limited to their office suite.

Some of this bloat comes from trying to support previous implimentations of technologies. (and some of it's not)

As a technology solutions provider, it is your responsibility to your clients to upskill and provide the best solution available on the market for your clients.

I hated the ribbon when it first came out, I couldn't find anything. But the clients that had office installed and didn't know how to use Office loved it.

They could get the information and the buttons they wanted quickly.

I realised at this time, that it is my responsibility to learn how to use the ribbon and make it a part of my application because end user's loved it.

I am quicker at picking up new technologies then they are, so it is my responsibility to re-learn what needs to be relearnt to make their experience better.

# October 17, 2009 12:04 AM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Anthony Moore: I like QAT since it may resolve all graphic problems. The problem is that QAT, at least in A2007 SP2, is buggy and out of use.

P.S. Is it really nesessary to buy new hardware when we buy new Office (Windows)? Definitely NOT! I can't tell my customers to buy new hardware each year.

# October 17, 2009 4:08 AM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Anthony Moore: ... and, of course, I don't want to re-design my forms each year.

# October 17, 2009 4:10 AM

Anthony Moore said:

Vladimir,

As the requirements for the operating system and the office software change, then so do the bringing the hardware in line with the current industry standard.

Not upgrading hardware will no doubt bring crys of "It's so Slow" from users of the new product because that eye candy that people want and use - takes up resources (Including Screan real estate)

Most, if not all monitors in this day and age are 1280 x 1024 with some exceptions (LCD TV's being used as monitors)

in all these instances, the minimum recommended screen resolution by > Windows XP is 800x600 but everything fitting relativly nicely on resolutions above this.

As for not upgrading your forms, yes, I can see where you are coming from for this. But the same thing could be said from a customers point of view...

Why should we use Access: Paper and a Pencil has been working well for us for years.

The need to update and change is based on better ways to do things. Not updating and changing leads to something becoming obsolete.

# October 17, 2009 6:26 AM

Edwin Blancovitch said:

ANTHONY, i cannot say it better. .

I completly agree.

Also, Vladimir, i think is better to provide your users with your own navigation and menus, and i think the ribbon is the best alternative for that.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386089.aspx

and there is a GREAT ribbon designer here. . .

http://itexcellence.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!50810C099C90C99A!151.entry

And again, my friend vladimir. . if you need my help i will help you creating a good ribbon for your application.

Edwin

# October 19, 2009 11:51 AM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Customers say that they can't read small letters on screens with high resolution. This is what I'm going to discuss with our dealers tomorrow.

# October 19, 2009 11:37 PM

Vladimir Cvajniga said:

Access community has been asking for "ZOOM-enabled" Access for years. No response from MS developer team...

# October 19, 2009 11:40 PM

Peter Doering said:

@Edwin:

The "mother" of all Ribbon designers:

http://www.ribboncreator.de/en/

But you know that, don't you? ;-)

# October 29, 2009 5:14 PM
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