Form Flickering with On Mouse Move event

[kbrice100]

The ultimate goal:
To create a mouseover effect for a control (command button) in which the text changes color. I have been dealing with flickering screens and controls and have come a long way but I am now stuck.

Originally - when the control is moused over, the control would flicker like crazy. With some adjustment to the coding I got the control to stop flickering, but now instead the entire form flickers once when the control is moused over and once when the mouse leaves the control. Code is as follows:

Private Sub Detail_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
If Me.TitleB.Visible <> False Then
Application.Echo False
Me.Title.Visible = True
Me.TitleB.Visible = False
Application.Echo True
End If
End Sub
 
Private Sub Title_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
If Me.TitleB.Visible <> True Then
Application.Echo False
Me.Title.Visible = True
Me.TitleB.Visible = True
Application.Echo True
End If
End Sub

Additionally, I have an image as the background for the form. If I remove all images from the form the flicker does not occur.

I have been researching for hours. Someone PUHLEASE help.

[twinnyfo]

kbrice100,

Welcome to Bytes!

I can't tell you exactly "why" Access does this, but it "appears" that when Access makes one thing visible/invisible, the system sometimes tries to repaint the entire form. I've had some experiences with similar flickering issues in the past. Some other experts might have a better idea as to why this happens.

Concerning your code, since it appears that you are only ever changing the one item (Me.TitleB.Visible), there should be no reason to turn the Echo on or Off (in fact, that may be causing some of the flickering effect).

Additionally, you can streamline your code so that you use only one procedure for the turning on/off of TitleB, but call it differently in each circumstance. See below:

Private Sub Detail_MouseMove( _
    Button As Integer, _
    Shift As Integer, _
    X As Single, _
    Y As Single)
 
    Call RefreshForm(DisplayTitleB:=False)
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Title_MouseMove( _
    Button As Integer, _
    Shift As Integer, _
    X As Single, _
    Y As Single)
 
    Call RefreshForm(DisplayTitleB:=True)
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub RefreshForm( _
    DisplayTitleB As Boolean)
 
    If Not Me.TitleB.Visible = DisplayTitleB Then _
        Me.TitleB.Visible = DisplayTitleB
 
End Sub

I did test the above code and I experienced no flickering, but my form only had two items on it.....

Hope this hepps!

[kbrice100]

twinnyfo,

Thank you for your reply!

The code works to stop the entire form from trying to repaint but the flicker has moved to the control itself. I can't tell if it's "Title" or "TitleB" since they are both behind each other but this is what happens:

By default, the control is a command button set with an invisible background, so all you see is the letters. When the mouse is moved over the box-shaped control, that entire box will flicker once, TitleB will become visible as it should, and then when you move off of the control box it flickers once again and TitleB disappears as it should.

So - it works and is definitely better than the original seizure-inducing flickering, but I would really love to see no flicker at all for that complete, professional product.

I'm wondering if the default invisible background has something to do with it?

[twinnyfo]

Have you tried changing the hover color on the command button? Then you don't have to concern yourself with all the Mouse Move events.

That might makes things even better....

[kbrice100]

So I guess with the text yes that could be an option but I have 5 command buttons on the form that act as links to different areas in the database (the text is a link to our website) and these command buttons have pictures as their fill and my idea was as these are hovered over a yellow border shows around them

Thus the concept is the same and when the code you provided is duplicated for these controls the same issue arises - on hover, rectangle control appears and cmd button control flickers once, on mouse move out, cmd button flickers once and rectangle control disappears

And of course, MS Access doesn't have a "Hover Border Color" option which seems absolutely silly to me and I can't believe they haven't put it in after so many years

At the end of the day, I could either:
1) Deal with the slight flicker
2) Use the text hover color option for the text and have nothing for the other 5 command buttons

Unless I can get that dang flicker to go away! I've got until 1 Jan to try and figure it out lol

[twinnyfo]

So.........................

Minor piece of advice: Name your controls according to a common, recognizable naming convention. Find one and stick with it.

Second, here is a recommendation. If these are just rectangles (which I had no idea, because of the indiscriminate name), then we may have some options. Here is one:

Here is my assumption, but you will have to correct me as required.

1. You have command buttons that have images on them.
2. You have rectangles (the "rectangle object") surrounding the command buttons.
3. The rectangles have a transparent background, but a yellow border.
4. The rectangles, by default are invisible, but when one hovers over the command button, the rectangles become visible.
5. When one moves away from the command button, the rectangles go invisible again.

These assumptions will drive the following:

1. Remove all your Rectangles and replace them with Labels. Name them as follows: lblBorder1, lblBorder2, lblBorder3, etc.
2. Make the background of the Labels transparent, with no text as their caption.
3. You could use regular image controls for this, but for now, you can keep the Command Buttons. Just make sure the Command Buttons are underneath the labels you create.
4. On the Labels, add the On Click event that you would have for your Command Buttons.
5. Make the Labels visible, solid yellow border (the way you want them to appear when hovered).
6. Then, change the border style to transparent (but don't change anything else about the border).
7. Remove the MouseMove and OnClick events from the Command buttons
8. In each Label's MouseMove Event, enter this: =ShowBorder(x), where x is the number of the Label
9. In the Detail of the form, add this to the MouseMove event: =ShowBorder(0)
10. Place this code into your form:

Private Function ShowBorder(Display As Integer)
    Dim intX As Integer
 
    If Display = 0 Then
        For intX = 1 To 5
            If Not Me("lblBorder" & intX).BorderStyle = 0 Then _
                Me("lblBorder" & intX).BorderStyle = 0
        Next intX
    Else
        If Not Me("lblBorder" & Display).BorderStyle = 1 Then _
            Me("lblBorder" & Display).BorderStyle = 1
    End If
End Function

That "should" keep everything tidy, and perhaps prevent some of the flickering. The flickering "could" be your system; it "could" be that you have a form that's massively draining your system resources; it "could" be that I am just unable to reproduce the flickering.

However, try this method of feline de-dermafication, and see if it hepps!

[kbrice100]

I have learned to practice good naming conventions for the controls. I apologize when I was mentioning the rectangle control I was just referring to it that way because that is the control "type" as described in Access.

Regardless, I understand the new concept you're going with here. Unfortunately I believe I'm making a rookie mistake (I'm self-taught with VBA and have only been using it for ~6 months).

When I put =ShowBorder(x) and =ShowBorder(0) in their respective places I get a compile error:

"Expected: line number or label or state or end of statement"

Private Sub Detail_MouseMove(Button As Integer, _
  Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
    = ShowBorder(0)   
End Sub

Private Sub lblBorder1_MouseMove(Button As _
 Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single) _
    = ShowBorder(1)
End Sub

I tried putting:

MelblBorder1 = ShowBorder(0)

and get "Object doesn't support this property or method"

And I have a feeling I'm just not understanding that part of your instruction so I apologize and appreciate your patience!

[twinnyfo]

=ShowBorder(x) and =ShowBorder(0) should go in the PROPERTY for MouseMove, not in the VBA. In fact, delete the VBA for those events.

[kbrice100]

Ah! Okay

Well with the new method implemented the same, single flicker still occurs.

As you said, I'm wondering if it's just too much for the system. Which if that is the case, I will have to either deal with the flicker or maybe just do without the hovering feature as it is not necessary but just gives it a little extra "umph."

[twinnyfo]

I get the "Umph" factor. It is one of the ways you can make your applications look more professional.

Keep striving for excellence! It takes a lifetime of working with Access to know all of its intricacies.

[kbrice100]

It has to do with the background image being too large for Access to handle well because when that is removed everything works just fine. I've researched things like double buffering (doesn't seem to be possible with Access) and handling images different ways but it just seems to be a limitation of Access, which is very unfortunate. Not using the image as my form's background is not an option, so I will have to deal with less "effects".

[twinnyfo]

You can try to reduce the size of the image. That might hepp!

[kbrice100]

Yes but with it being set as the background image it becomes quite "fuzzy" very quickly since it has to be stretched to fit the entire screen and the reduction required to stop any flickering makes it unsatisfactory.

The Application.Echo property is able to get the controls themselves to stop flickering which makes me think there is a possible solution in there somewhere. But it also causes the entire form to flicker non-stop at an interval. So it fixes one issue and creates another.

I've conducted hours of fruitless research and I believe I have passed the point of it being worth it. If I want to keep an image as the background of the form, I'll have to accept that the effects on that form are going to be limited.

[twinnyfo]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................

Would you mind sending the image file? And what are the dimensions of the form you want for the image?

I might could play with it for a bit.....

[kbrice100]

Another rookie question - how do I do that? haha

[twinnyfo]

When you type your reply, click the advanced button. This will give you options for uploading attachments. Please attach the image and not a link to a hosted image.

Thanks!

[NeoPa]

Nice work (as always) Twinny.

Nice to see K Brice also continuing to explore and progress.

Interesting thread :-)

[kbrice100]

Okay images are attached I believe.

BG1 is the main form background picture. The other four pictures are four out of the five pictures I have as the clickable "pictures" to take users to their respective sites - I figured I'd add those in there to give you a more complete picture (no pun intended) of what I'm working with.

Also most monitors users will have display a resolution of 1680 x 1050, and that would be the biggest.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[twinnyfo]

This may be one of those cases in which your bells and whistles merely make a lot of noise but provide no value added. This is not meant in a mean way....

Are your pictures (for the last four images) embedded in the background and you've created clickable controls over the image of the button? At least this is what it seems you have described.

If those are just forms, It is certainly much easier to simply build the form with command buttons. Even though command buttons don't have a "HoverBorderColor" as a property, there are ample enough hover properties to make it clear that a user is hovering their mouse over a command button--all of which is built into MS Access and you never have to worry about building additional procedures. Of course, these were added to provide additional flexibility--I'm just not sure your design warrants such complexity to simply allow users to navigate to different forms.

Please take all this advice with a grain of salt sprinkled with some sugar..... We are glad to help you design your DB however you want and to the best of our abilities. But, we also try to offer realistic advice when warranted. This is just one of those cases.

Trust me: I LOVE bells and whistles in my projects, and I think when added to a form they can be both useful and productive. However, in your case, simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing.

Also, aside from your first image, all resolutions came out as 289x244, so there's not much I could do with those pictures, anyway. you may have to zip them and upload.

I'm glad to keep working on this with you.

[kbrice100]

I concur, which is why I was beginning to feel the time spent in trying to figure it out was past being worth it.

No offense taken! I appreciate all of your advice and input. I think for now I'm going to let it go and rest easy with the simpler approach.