Designing an Interface and the "On Mouse UP..." Event

[JHNielson]

I am designing an interface, and I would like to customize the buttons instead of using the plain gray boxes that are standard in Access.

Is there a way to set for the "On Mouse Up" and "On Mouse Down" events for the control to display two different pictures?

I have two pictures: Button-UP.jpg and Button-Down.jpg. Can is set Access to show Button-Down on the "on mouse down event" and show the Button-UP on the "on mouse up" events?


Thanks

[ADezii]

I am designing an interface, and I would like to customize the buttons instead of using the plain gray boxes that are standard in Access.

Is there a way to set for the "On Mouse Up" and "On Mouse Down" events for the control to display two different pictures?

I have two pictures: Button-UP.jpg and Button-Down.jpg. Can is set Access to show Button-Down on the "on mouse down event" and show the Button-UP on the "on mouse up" events?


Thanks

Assuming your Command Button is Command1:

Private Sub Command1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
  Me![Command1].Picture = "C:\<your path to .jpg>\Button-UP.jpg "
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
  Me![Command1].Picture = "C:\<your path to .jpg>\Button-Down.jpg "
End Sub

[JHNielson]

Assuming your Command Button is Command1:

Private Sub Command1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
  Me![Command1].Picture = "C:\<your path to .jpg>\Button-UP.jpg "
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
  Me![Command1].Picture = "C:\<your path to .jpg>\Button-Down.jpg "
End Sub

Great - thanks! I'll try that. Is there anyway to make this embedded in the Access database itself?

[ADezii]

Great - thanks! I'll try that. Is there anyway to make this embedded in the Access database itself?

The code in these 2 Events will automatically be 'embedded' within the Database. The code accompanies the Form's Code Module. Is that what you are referring to?

[JHNielson]

Sorry - I should have been more clear......

Is there anyway to embed the pictures so that it doesn't have to call on them form a location on the hard drive? I was wondering, can I put them in a table or something. It's just that this is an "applicatio n" that will be sent ot a few users, and wanted to avoid having to have the interface pics installed in a specific area.


Thanks again for all the help.

[missinglinq]

I believe most everyone here will agree that embedding images in Access is a bad idea, as it quickly leads to major file bloat, especially if you plan on doing this for a number of buttons, and will also agree with ADezii's suggestion of linking to the images. Sometimes people will paste an image over a button that suggests the button's purpose, but if your images are ButtonUp and ButtonDown, how are your users going to know the purpos of the button?

[JHNielson]

I believe most everyone here will agree that embedding images in Access is a bad idea, as it quickly leads to major file bloat, especially if you plan on doing this for a number of buttons, and will also agree with ADezii's suggestion of linking to the images. Sometimes people will paste an image over a button that suggests the button's purpose, but if your images are ButtonUp and ButtonDown, how are your users going to know the purpos of the button?

Great. That makes a lot of sense. I will take that advice and look into changing the names to be more reflective.

My one question would be, what are my options for "installing " the application on someone else's computer without having to manually copy the folder of the interface pages themselves. This utility will potentially be moved around a bit (not a ton but to a couple of different computers)

Otherwise I would have to embed the images inside the database - and I will have to minimize the number of buttons I'm creating - Fortunately, right now it's only ten - so it won't be too bad. How would I go about doing this?


Thanks for everyone's help so far.

[Rabbit]

You can use Winzip's self extractor.

[ADezii]

Great. That makes a lot of sense. I will take that advice and look into changing the names to be more reflective.

My one question would be, what are my options for "installing " the application on someone else's computer without having to manually copy the folder of the interface pages themselves. This utility will potentially be moved around a bit (not a ton but to a couple of different computers)

Otherwise I would have to embed the images inside the database - and I will have to minimize the number of buttons I'm creating - Fortunately, right now it's only ten - so it won't be too bad. How would I go about doing this?


Thanks for everyone's help so far.

You could also utilize the Package and Deployment Wizard which I think comes with the Microsoft Office Software Developement Kit (SDK), Visual Basic, and Visual Studio. This would provide you with a full blown installation option.

[JHNielson]

Thanks for all the help. I am looking into the idea of building the installer using Visual Studio.

But, as an option, I think i might be able to simplify the button needs down to 4, in which case I only have 8 pictures to call on. Is there a way to put these into a table in access and then call on them for the Mouse_Up and Mouse_Down events?


Thanks for everyone's help, this is a new area of development for me and I really appreciate all the help.