Access crashes when opening form in design view

[Ray]

Stop me if you've heard this, but I am running Access 2002 and all of
a sudden, if I design a particular form (it's been working fine for
ages), Access crashes rather than open it in design view.

Interestingly, it doesn't crash if I run the app and open it in form
view! Just if I attempt to design it.

If I compact/repair, it allows me to design the form once. On any
subsequent attempts to view in design mode, though, it crashes before
anything displays.

After a lot if hair-tearing, I found that I had made a change to a
field name in a table, and not updated a query that used it. When I
attempted to design the query, I got a message saying that Access
could not represent in design view one of the joins. That query was
used by a listbox on the offending form.

All I had to do was fix the query, and the form will now design and
save without crashing Access.

But it's very annoying. Is there some kind of Access option which
controls this? I'd like to turn it off.

Ray

[pap]

"Ray" <ra*@aic.net.au> wrote in message
news:9f**************************@posting.google.c om...

if I design a particular form (it's been working fine for
ages), Access crashes rather than open it in design view. [] But it's very annoying. Is there some kind of Access option which
controls this? I'd like to turn it off.

Ray

umm No.
The complexity of an Access form and listbox classes and Jets compileing
query engine allowed one to falls through the cracks.

peter walker

[Allen Browne]

Yes there is a way to turn this off.

The problem is almost certainly caused by Name AutoCorrect - a "feature"
where Access is supposed to keep track of things when you rename them, and
let your database keep working with the new name. But the feature only works
partially, and when the names don't match completely, your database is
corrupted.

To turn it off, uncheck the boxes under:
Tools | Options | General | Name AutoCorrect.
Then compact the database to get rid of this:
Tools | Database Utilities | Compact.

After the kind of problems you describe, you may also like to decompile a
copy of the database by entering something like this at the command prompt
while Access is not running. It is all one line, and include the quotes:
"c:\Program Files\Microsoft office\office\msaccess.exe" /decompile
"c:\MyPath\MyDatabase.mdb"

More information on other problems caused by this "Name AutoCorrupt"
feature:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/bug-03.html

Other suggestions on how to avoid corruptions:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~allenbrowne/ser-25.html

--
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.

"Ray" <ra*@aic.net.au> wrote in message
news:9f**************************@posting.google.c om...

Stop me if you've heard this, but I am running Access 2002 and all of
a sudden, if I design a particular form (it's been working fine for
ages), Access crashes rather than open it in design view.

Interestingly, it doesn't crash if I run the app and open it in form
view! Just if I attempt to design it.

If I compact/repair, it allows me to design the form once. On any
subsequent attempts to view in design mode, though, it crashes before
anything displays.

After a lot if hair-tearing, I found that I had made a change to a
field name in a table, and not updated a query that used it. When I
attempted to design the query, I got a message saying that Access
could not represent in design view one of the joins. That query was
used by a listbox on the offending form.

All I had to do was fix the query, and the form will now design and
save without crashing Access.

But it's very annoying. Is there some kind of Access option which
controls this? I'd like to turn it off.

Ray