* Allow Mousewheel to Scroll Down *

[deve8ore]

Hello,

I've developed a form for users to enter in new info into an Access db.
The form is very long, and everyone is used to scrolling down the page via the flywheel on the mouse, however when doing this it does NOT scroll down the form, it actually goes to the next record.

Does anyone know how to turn this function off and just allow the Flywheel to scroll down the page rather than going to the next record?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[beacon]

Hi deve8ore,

It's been my experience that it isn't necessarily good design to create forms that are longer than the viewing area. If you have a form that is longer than the viewing area, it's a good idea to use the tab control to separate the form into sections and relieve the user from having to scroll at all.

I have some code that will prevent users from using the wheel on the mouse to scroll to other records (which I think is posted in this forum somewhere), but I don't have code that will allow the user to scroll down the form.

[missinglinq]

Beacon is correct on all points!

Forms that require a user to scroll down to access all controls is considered to be the ultimate user-unfriendly! Use a tabbed control and expand laterally.

As for the mousewheel, if you're running Access 2007, you already have a function that addresses this issue! You can lock the wheel from going to another record and still allow scrolling down thru records in Datasheet and Continuous View. See Help for details. You still cannot scroll down a too large form, though.

For all other versions, you'll need some outside help. A gentleman by the name of Stephen Lebans has a sample database that does this and it can be downloaded at:

http://www.lebans.com/mousewheelonoff.htm

You still cannot scroll down overly long forms. I've seen this question posed dozens of times with no successful solution ever being found.

My last question would be exactly how many controls do you have on this form that requires using such a long one?

Linq ;0)>

[ADezii]

The critical placement of Page Breaks, and accompanying Navigation Methods on a Form, can make the use of very long Forms much more practical. Scrolling is eliminated, as well as the Tab Control. It must, however, be carefully designed.

[deve8ore]

Good comments by all, and certainly appreciated. Thank you!!

[beacon]

@ADezii
Hi ADezii,

I've found that page breaks on forms end up being somewhat confusing for the user unless you have some kind of indicator on your form that explains to the user how to progress to the next page. This is okay, but it could potentially take up needed space on the form.

The only method I've seen came from John Viescas in the Microsoft Access 2003 Inside and Out book. What navigation methods are you suggesting? I thought this might help Dev as much as it would squash my curiousity.

[beacon]

@deve8ore
Hi Dev,

I just wanted to pass this article along to you in case you decide to take the tab control route. The link is at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ac...300491033.aspx.

I'm not sure how much experience you have with VBA, but if you need additional customization, tab controls work a little differently than your typical control. You will have to access the tab control first, then access the pages on the tab control to add functionality. Ex:

TabCtl.Pages(1).Visible = False       'Will hide the page on the tab control
TabCtl.Pages(3).Caption = "Donkey"    'Will change the display name of the page
 

Hope this helps...