[AccessD] Form instances (AXP) and now AY2k3

Tortise tortise at paradise.net.nz
Mon Dec 8 12:32:53 CST 2003


Dear Charlotte

OK.  (smile)  Imagine a contact management App.  First form instance deals with a contact, user half way thru work, receives phone call, needs refer to second contact.

Usual thing is to close current form record and locate second contact.  (Or use a colleagues PC!) (User may remember to go back to first record and complete work = risk)  More efficient is to open second instance of form and locate the 2nd contact there...do the bizzo, and go back to the first forms instance and finish the 1st bizzo.  

Now cascade that scenario out 5 times...and once you try it...15 times....like in the real world, you end up with 15 open records / files in 15 form instances in the app.  

How do you quickly navigate these?   (these same form instances with different records within)

One method is to cascade them, the form instance caption tells you the ID of the record within so it is easy to click and select the form instance you seek.  (screen environment is 1600x1200 so 15 instances do cascade before overlapping!)

Another method is to use the Window menu item...but its limited to 9 open windows thereafter you are into "More windows".  (Thank you Microsoft, how you create "business" for this ergonomist!!!)

My preferred method is to use a combo box (an object on the form with capacity for multiple instances)  on the form to show the ID of the records open in the form instances open.  On dropdown it would run a query (or similar?) to list the current ID records (form instances captions) of the open form instances, to rapidly navigate thru them.

Have I charted a navigational course towards some land for you?  (smile)  (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

Kind regards,
Dr David Hingston
Director
Chequers Software Limited
Wellington, New Zealand.
www.cheqsoft.com
Crafters of:
Break Reminder - For safe and efficient PC use - www.breakreminder.com
TimesOwn - International Time Zone Calculator a click away - http://www.cheqsoft.com/timesown.html
Clipboard Express - Cut and paste storage and web form filler - http://www.cheqsoft.com/clipboard.html
MP3Detective - MP3 Player manager - http://www.cheqsoft.com/mp3detective.html
Engines2Go = E2Go Fast and friendly Internet searching - have you tried it? http://www.E2Go.com/
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Charlotte Foust 
  To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 5:36 AM
  Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP) and now AY2k3


  I would like to help, but I am completely baffled by what you just
  wrote.  A form has one and only one current record.  You can open
  multiple instances of a form and they can have different current
  records, but I'm completely at sea on the combobox issue.  Where (and
  why) would you be using a combobox to navigate *between* forms??

  Charlotte Foust

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Tortise [mailto:tortise at paradise.net.nz] 
  Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 11:32 AM
  To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
  Subject: Re: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP) and now AY2k3


  If I may belatedly reply...(?)
  Because how else can the user know the current content of the instance
  they wish to navigate back to, form(0), form(1) etc is not really
  helpful.  Or am I missing something here? Expressed differently can one
  retrieve the current record(s) in a form instance to list the current
  records in each forms instance, and use a combo box to facilitate the
  user navigating to each form with record names they understand? 
  Kind regards,
  Dr David Hingston
  Director
  Chequers Software Limited
  Wellington, New Zealand.
  www.cheqsoft.com
  Crafters of:
  Break Reminder - For safe and efficient PC use - www.breakreminder.com
  TimesOwn - International Time Zone Calculator a click away -
  http://www.cheqsoft.com/timesown.html
  Clipboard Express - Cut and paste storage and web form filler -
  http://www.cheqsoft.com/clipboard.html
  MP3Detective - MP3 Player manager -
  http://www.cheqsoft.com/mp3detective.html
  Engines2Go = E2Go Fast and friendly Internet searching - have you tried
  it? http://www.E2Go.com/
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Charlotte Foust 
    To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com 
    Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 9:22 AM
    Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)


    When you use For Each frm in Forms, you're iterating through the
  members
    of the collection of open forms and you're going by index rather than
  by
    name.   That's the equivalent of Forms(0), Forms(1), etc., not
    Forms("frmMyForm"), although you're free to address them using the
    numeric index ... if you know which one you need. <VBG>   Why would
  you
    expect the caption to give you meaningful results?  That is not a
    difference in the name of the form, and anyhow you aren't looking for
  a
    different form, you just want a particular instance of that form; so
  if
    you can create a key that will get you there, why not use it?   

    Charlotte Foust

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Neal Kling [mailto:nkling at co.montgomery.ny.us] 
    Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 11:04 AM
    To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
    Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)


    Sure, in our own collection, but that's not the Access Forms
  collection,
    which by the way does add a reference to the multiple forms, but all
  the
    instances of the same form share the same name.

    So, while we can't use Debug.Print Forms("frmMyForm").Caption and
  expect
    to get meaningful results, we can use 'For Each frm In Forms....'

    Neal Kling
    Lotus, isn't that some kind of fancy flower?


    -----Original Message-----
    From: Charlotte Foust [mailto:cfoust at infostatsystems.com]
    Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 2:27 PM
    To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
    Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)


    Actually, you could use the name plus an incremental number as the key
    when you add the item to the collection, but it is natural that you
    can't address it the conventional way if you have multiple instances
    open.

    Charlotte Foust

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Roz Clarke [mailto:roz.clarke at donnslaw.co.uk] 
    Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 5:18 AM
    To: 'accessd at databaseadvisors.com'
    Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)


    Thanks Neal. I have ADH 97. I'll try and wrestle it off my colleague!!

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Neal Kling [mailto:nkling at co.montgomery.ny.us] 
    Sent: 15-Apr-2003 14:01
    To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
    Subject: RE: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)


    I adapted code from ADH that worked well.  Basically you declare a
  form
    variable as Form_MyForm and work with it.  They use a collection to
  hold
    pointers to the instances of a form and code to add and remove items
    from the collection.
     
    The one hitch that I quickly hit was that you can't reference your
  form
    by name, in other words you can't use Forms!MyForm.
     
    If you don't have ADH I could probably put something together for you.
     
    Neal Kling
    Lotus, isn't that some kind of fancy flower?

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Roz Clarke [mailto:roz.clarke at donnslaw.co.uk]
    Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 8:41 AM
    To: AccessD (AccessD at databaseadvisors.com)
    Subject: [AccessD] Form instances (AXP)



    Hi all 

    Does anyone know where there is any documentation on opening multiple
    instances of a form? I can't find anything in the help file or on
  MSDN.

    TIA 

    Roz 

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