William Benson (VBACreations.Com)
vbacreations at gmail.com
Thu Sep 8 08:12:51 CDT 2011
Hear Hear! Or is it "Here Here!" Either way, I'm with you Darryl. It's amazing what Access developers put up with, and what the user is still willing to pay for (for now). Maybe a way you can handle this is to build several forms with identical controls (or supplemental ones) but a single naming scheme, to depict scenario-based controls in the proper position. The sterile forms just hold controls, no data and no code. The "live" form is the one which keeps all controls, but basically has anything not needed in a "scenario" tucked out of the visible range. Any time a scenario changes, you consult the sterile form, put all the control names and positions and sizes in an array (might not really need the sizes, but might if you had to play with sizes of the live-form's controls in order to "park" them somewhere out of the way etc)... then build a collection of all controls NOT in that array, park them out of the way, then reposition what is left over according to the array of controls you read off the sterile forms. Just an idea ... keeps your options open. Bill -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Darryl Collins Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 2:57 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Wish List. Hi Charlotte - forgive me for this as I really respect your opinion, but I am not sure you understand how layers work in other applications - they would never show up all at the same time (unless that is what you wanted). You can control which ones are visible to the user - might be one, might be several in different combinations and you can show and reveal based on what the user needs. Layers would also have the huge advantage of allowing you to edit each layer individually in design mode. So you have no need to move controls out of the way to get to a control that is under another one. Have play in photoshop if you get the chance and you will see how useful this method is. I know I can fake it using a tab form but the result is less elegant you cannot hide the tab label itself and it is a pain to ensure all the controls on each tab is aligned. Blah blah, I have resorted to tabs in the past and it is a clunky solution for what I am trying to do. That said, sometimes tabbed forms are the way to go. Just depends on what you want to achieve. In this instance I was thinking "Man, wish I had a layered design view"... Just my thoughts. Cheers Darryl. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Foust Sent: Thursday, 8 September 2011 12:10 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Wish List. Microsoft addressed this years ago by introducing tab controls. Why on earth would you want to use layers that all showed up at the same time? Logically, layers would only show the controls relevant to that layer/page. Charlotte Foust On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Darryl Collins < darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au> wrote: > Been doing a lot of work with forms. In particular single forms with a lot > of controls that are hidden or revealed depending on what options are > available. I really wish MS were inspired by Adobe with how form design > behaves. Why can't forms be layered? So you can work on individual layers > which only have the relevant controls for that layer, but when the form is > displayed all layers are shown, just like an image in Photoshop for > example. > > > > That would be super useful as right now if I want to change anything on > first controls I added, I have to move all of the other controls on top out > of the way, make the changes, and then put them all back again. A real > PITA. Would be wonderful to turn on and off visibility on the layers and > then it would be easy to access any set of controls that are just on that > layer. > > > > I know I can sort of fake this by using tabs, is this a better way or does > anyone has a different angle I can consider? > > > > Cheers > > Darryl. > > > > Darryl Collins > > Whittle Consulting Pty Ltd > > Suite 8, 660 Canterbury Rd > > Surrey Hills, VIC, 3127 > > > > p: +61 3 9898 3242 > > m: +61 418 381 548 > > f: +61 3 9898 1855 > > e: <mailto:darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au> > darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au > > w: <http://www.whittleconsulting.com.au/ > > > www.whittleconsulting.com.au > > > > > > -- > 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