John Bartow
john at winhaven.net
Fri Jan 2 17:14:52 CST 2004
John, I think you've summed it up pretty well here. The CommandBar system seems to be a flexible system but not very developer friendly. It could definitely use a more comprehensive UI to configure options for each form/report object. Because I distribute apps using Access runtime, and built-in CommandBars aren't available under runtime, I have created a set of custom toolbars that I use for runtime use: tbrMenu; mbrMenu; sbrMenu for all menu forms tbrPopup; mbrPopup; sbrPopup for all pop-up forms tbrBasic; mbrBasic; sbrBasic for all standard forms tbrReport; mbrReport; sbrReport for all reports etc. I then customize a CommandBar if needed for a particular form or control. By doing this I can just import CommandBars from a previously built app and not have to spend time creating them. Before distributing for runtime use I set the "AllowBuiltinToolbars" property to false so my users will never get the built-in set of CommandBars. John B. PS: I think the same crew worked on the CommandBar UI that put the task options in Outlook 2k. I guess things could be worse! Here's a trick that might make you appreciate the CommandBar UI better: Try to find "Set Reminders on Tasks with Due Dates" in Outlook 2k - I guarantee that its on one of the four different dialogs boxes (each having three or less options on it) used to set task option. > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W. Colby > Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 12:38 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: RE: [AccessD] Where do they store the toolbar info > > > John, > > I've discovered that the toolbars I am discussing are either > showing or not > for EVERY form, though thinking back on it I'm a bit confused about this > because I would go through a bunch of small forms in this app and > one would > display the toolbar, the next would not. > > In any case, at this specific moment the right click toolbar menu > that opens > when I right click the menu bar at the top of the app had 5 toolbars > available to be clicked. > > Clipboard > Form view > Web > ToolbarDataEntry (a custom toolbar) > ToolBarMenu (a custom toolbar) > > Any one or ALL of these can be selected / deselected while a form is open. > If you close the form and open another form, the toolbars are still open, > although again I swear that some forms showed them, others didn't. > > At any rate, I discovered that if you right click the menu bar, > then select > customize, a slew of toolbars are available to be displayed by > checking the > check box to the left of each. However, if you select a toolbar > and go into > properties, there are several checkboxes available: > > Allow Customizing > Allow Resizing > Allow Moving > Allow Show/Hiding > > If you unclick the Allow Show/hiding then you can't cause that toolbar to > appear even if you select it, where normally you would be able to display > the toolbar just by checking it's selector checkbox. > > So IF it is currently displayed, you can't cause it to go away. > If it's not > displayed, you can't cause it to display. > > It then turns out that you can customize your development environment by > (for example): > > Going into design view of something like a form. > Make sure Allow show/hiding is checked for a toolbar you want > go into Customize and select the toolbars you want for that view (design / > form). > Deselect Allow show / hide for those toolbars. > > Now you can't get rid of the toolbars in that view (design forms) > > Go into View forms (viewing the form opened). > make sure Allow show/hide is checked for the toolbar you want > Go into customize and select the toolbar(s) you want displayed > (or deselect > any "problem" toolbars you DON'T want) > Deselect Allow show/hide for those toolbars. > > Now the toolbars selected cannot be deselected and the ones you DON'T want > can't be selected. > > It seems like a royal PITA to set this up. There are so many > toolbars that > you have to futz with to get things right, however it looks like when you > are done this problem would go away. > > And I still don't know how Access stores what toolbars are being viewed in > any view of any given access object (form/report/module etc). It > looks like > a form in view mode can have a set of toolbars, a different set in design > view, reports have a set in view mode, a different set in design mode etc. > all of which can then be "locked down" so that nothing can be > taken away and > likewise nothing extra can be added. > > But WHAT A PAIN doing it manually. > > John W. Colby > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John Bartow > Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 11:32 AM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: RE: [AccessD] Where do they store the toolbar info > > > Hi John, > I had a similar problem recently. Commandbars are wierd ducks for sure. > Anyway, I used Speed Ferret to change all of the command bars > references to > the ones that I wanted (my own) for each type of object. I would > imagine any > search and replace tool could do the same, if you are using another one. > > Sorry, I don't have much in the way of code to manipulate command bars to > address these types of problems. > > John B. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W. Colby > > Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 7:18 PM > > To: AccessD > > Subject: [AccessD] Where do they store the toolbar info > > > > > > I am going through a database I inherited trying to make the > > thing look and > > act consistent. One thing that I am running across is that some > > forms have > > toolbars on such as "web design", "Form view" etc. If you go to > > design view > > / properties / others, there is no toolbar in any of the toolbar > > properties > > on this tab. > > > > This is something that has always puzzled me and I never really > > ever figured > > out. This (what toolbars are being displayed) is "context > > sensitive", i.e. > > if you click in the menu at the top of a form while in view mode > > (not design > > view) and select a toolbar from the menu that appears, then close > > the form, > > the form "retains" that toolbar as it opens next time. > > > > That is simply nuts to me, who wants the form design toolbar > > viewable to the > > user just because you used it yourself? > > > > Anyway, where the ^%*&^%(*^) is this stuff stored? Does anyone > > have code to > > go find and get rid of these things throughout an application > (all forms). > > I'm currently opening every form and if they have any of these > > menus, right > > clicking on the top, unselecting the menu and saving (closing) the form > > which gets rid of it... until the next time it is closed with > one of these > > menus selected. > > > > Help!!! > > > > John W. Colby > > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > >