[AccessD] Wish List.

Hi Darryl

Perhaps you could use a paged form. One page for each scenario. Controls needed on more than one page you just duplicate.

It's the technique used for wizards in the (old) versions of Access; move Next or Back just moves the form to the next or previous page. Simple and fast.

/gustav


>>> darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au 08-09-2011 08:57 >>>
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.