Themed Controls & Form Back Colour

[Tim Marshall]

I would swear that when I developed in A97, I could change the back
colour of a form.

However, in Windows XP, on both A97 and A2003, there no longer is a
property showing in the format tab for form properties for a back colour.

I think the themed control idea is pretty good in that a developer can
really go out on a limb if s/he chooses all kinds of fancy background
colours for his/her app since colours selection is a very subjective
area and something that can be left to the user to select his/her own
colours is good that way.

Nevertheless, whether or not I choose to subscribe to such a design
philosophy, there are going to be times I'll want to vary the back
colour of a form on my own.

Can someone expand on this for me, please? Is it a Win XP thing?
Thanks very much on advance.
--
Tim - http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~tmarshal/
^o<
/#) "Burp-beep, burp-beep, burp-beep?" - Quaker Jake
/^^ "What's UP, Dittoooooo?" - Ditto

[Allen Browne]

Hi Tim

Welcome to the brave new world, where Access 2003 and Windows XP themes
combine to destroy your functionality! :-)

Unless you disable Themes in Windows XP:
- A2003 does indeed ignore the BackStyle of a tab control if you set it to
Transparent.
- It fails to visually distinguish all 3 states for a TripleState check box.
- It causes unattached labels to flicker if the Parent is something other
than the form:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-46.html
- It can cause scrollbars not to work and things not to select correctly
(typically in the Relationships window, and in query design).
One workaround is to disable WinXP themes. Right-click the desktop, and set
the Theme to Windows Classic.

While those things are annoying, there are more serious problems you may not
be aware of if you have been working with A97 and now switched:
- Name AutoCorrect is a doozy. Should be called Name AutoCorrupt:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-03.html
- The new field type (Decimal) fails at very basic levels (can't sort):
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-08.html
- Default properties have changed, so you have more work to do every time
you create a database, a table, a field, or a form:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-09.html
- A subform that does not have a text box for the foreign key field can
cause your database to crash whenever you use the form. Mentioned in:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-48.html
- There are a swag of performance issues you must learn to deal with:
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/performancefaq.htm

Have fun.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"Tim Marshall" <TI****@antarctic.flowerpots> wrote in message
news:cj**********@coranto.ucs.mun.ca...

I would swear that when I developed in A97, I could change the back colour
of a form.

However, in Windows XP, on both A97 and A2003, there no longer is a
property showing in the format tab for form properties for a back colour.

I think the themed control idea is pretty good in that a developer can
really go out on a limb if s/he chooses all kinds of fancy background
colours for his/her app since colours selection is a very subjective area
and something that can be left to the user to select his/her own colours
is good that way.

Nevertheless, whether or not I choose to subscribe to such a design
philosophy, there are going to be times I'll want to vary the back colour
of a form on my own.

Can someone expand on this for me, please? Is it a Win XP thing? Thanks
very much on advance.
--
Tim - http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~tmarshal/
^o<
/#) "Burp-beep, burp-beep, burp-beep?" - Quaker Jake
/^^ "What's UP, Dittoooooo?" - Ditto

[Tim Marshall]

Allen Browne wrote:

Hi Tim
<snip rather depressing news!>
Have fun.

<shriek!>

Oh dear... I thought I was being really clever by making small jpgs or
bmps of one colour and having a tiled picture property with the graphic
embedded in the form.

There's a lot more to consider.

I'll thank goodness though I have your rather comprehensive list of
things to look at and will have read through these the weekend.

Thanks very much.
--
Tim - http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~tmarshal/
^o<
/#) "Burp-beep, burp-beep, burp-beep?" - Quaker Jake
/^^ "What's UP, Dittoooooo?" - Ditto

[Pieter Linden]

"Allen Browne" <Al*********@SeeSig.Invalid> wrote in message news:<41***********************@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>...

Hi Tim

Welcome to the brave new world, where Access 2003 and Windows XP themes
combine to destroy your functionality! :-)

Unless you disable Themes in Windows XP:
- A2003 does indeed ignore the BackStyle of a tab control if you set it to
Transparent.
- It fails to visually distinguish all 3 states for a TripleState check box.
- It causes unattached labels to flicker if the Parent is something other
than the form:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-46.html
- It can cause scrollbars not to work and things not to select correctly
(typically in the Relationships window, and in query design).
One workaround is to disable WinXP themes. Right-click the desktop, and set
the Theme to Windows Classic.

While those things are annoying, there are more serious problems you may not
be aware of if you have been working with A97 and now switched:
- Name AutoCorrect is a doozy. Should be called Name AutoCorrupt:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-03.html
- The new field type (Decimal) fails at very basic levels (can't sort):
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-08.html
- Default properties have changed, so you have more work to do every time
you create a database, a table, a field, or a form:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-09.html
- A subform that does not have a text box for the foreign key field can
cause your database to crash whenever you use the form. Mentioned in:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-48.html
- There are a swag of performance issues you must learn to deal with:
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/performancefaq.htm

Have fun.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

LOL.... I guess that's why A97 was so popular... it worked (well, at
least better than its successors). Makes me think MS should probably
start selling it again... =)