conditional formatting on a form

[lala]

what are you trying to do and version of access are you using? how come using access expressions is not working out for you.

 

[Simon_MT]

Sometimes we can do an overkill, I think that users can read Statuses without colour coding and by using a Function I change the Header of the Form rather than each record. Yes, this only works on each record but I perfer a more subtle approach and present the actual data without ornamentation.

By the way you can have a many conditions as required.

Simon

 

[lala]

Sometimes we can do an overkill, I think that users can read Statuses without colour coding and by using a Function I change the Header of the Form rather than each record. Yes, this only works on each record but I perfer a more subtle approach and present the actual data without ornamentation.

By the way you can have a many conditions as required.

Simon

not really true in my opinion, yes having 10 different colors is overkill, but 3-4 for the most used ones - i don't see why not. people are diferent, some are visual, some are not. i'm visual and colors work very well for me, less brain work, i see a color and i don't have to read the status.

so i'm sure it works well for the rest of the "visuals")))))


changing the header doesn't seem like a good idea with a continuous form, you'd have to click on a line to get the color change.

 

[Simon_MT]

I deal with works of art over 17,000 of them so I understand aesthetics and I use pngs, gifs and jpgs on my Forms but I prefer to maximise the readibility the actual information.

Simon

 

[lala]

i'm sure you do. all i'm trying to say is that everyone has different preferences. there's a reason conditional formatting exists in both access and excel. some people like colorcoding data and others like text alone. to each his own, no one's way is better.

 

[sixHat]

Sorry Lala... maybe I explained it incorrectly. I'm not having trouble with the expressions... it's just been such a long time since I've had to use them as I access mostly all of my data using ADODB.Recordset objects via VBA and SQL. I had to knock the dust off of my brain to remember how to do expressions again. And to answer your other question I currently use 2010.

And for the record I agree with color coding. When you get to looking at hundreds and thousands of records color coding definately helps classify records in an instant. I also agree that it can go over board like any other element that you add to a form or report. You never want to overwhelm the user with too much all at once. Like all else in life and design a balance can be met. Sometimes 3 different colors may be too much... sometimes 10 different colors may not be enough... I think the application and use... and who the user is going to be has to be the determining factor more than any set limit... I'm sure their are other variables as well but you get the point.

 

[sixHat]

Also Lala I see you joined in 2002 and have over 700 posts... Yet your still considered a newly registered user? Man who do you got to know to get some cred around this forum?

 

[lala]

Also Lala I see you joined in 2002 and have over 700 posts... Yet your still considered a newly registered user? Man who do you got to know to get some cred around this forum?

))))))))) you made me laugh with this. i think i can change that, just have to go into my settings. but not sure.

seriously though, yes, i've been here for years, but i don't answer questions, i usually ask. and this forum is AMAZING. throughout the years they got me out of so many dead ends, i can't stop gloating about it.

it really is an amazing place, people here know everything about access and vba.

 

[lala]

Sorry Lala... maybe I explained it incorrectly. I'm not having trouble with the expressions... it's just been such a long time since I've had to use them as I access mostly all of my data using ADODB.Recordset objects via VBA and SQL. I had to knock the dust off of my brain to remember how to do expressions again. And to answer your other question I currently use 2010.

And for the record I agree with color coding. When you get to looking at hundreds and thousands of records color coding definately helps classify records in an instant. I also agree that it can go over board like any other element that you add to a form or report. You never want to overwhelm the user with too much all at once. Like all else in life and design a balance can be met. Sometimes 3 different colors may be too much... sometimes 10 different colors may not be enough... I think the application and use... and who the user is going to be has to be the determining factor more than any set limit... I'm sure their are other variables as well but you get the point.

totally agree with all this.

just one question about coding everything. if you're ready to code from ground up then why use access? i don't know for sure, but from what i heard there are other much more powerful languages than vba you can use if you're ready to code everything from start to finish. i thought the appeal of access was the fact the they coded most of it and building database without knowing vba AT ALL is possible.

i've done it, back in a day when i didn't know vba i built a few pretty complicated databases with no code at all. yes, very ugly behind the scenes (number of queries and forms and macros) but one of them is still used today.

 

[sixHat]

Yes... their are other I.D.E.'s that are more extensible than Access depending on the nature of what your trying to do. But don't underestimate Access or VBA. I've done many things in Access that others wouldn't have thought possible. Access is nice as it packages in a whole complete unit. And more over their are many clients who use Access so this is what I deliver to them. But in the end I do use many different I.D.E.'s including Visual Basic I also develop web applications and use diifernt languages that way as well. But VBA and Access is home to me. I use many different languages but VBA is the one language that I can bang out a program without much thought since it was the programming language I learned in... and it just makes so much sense!! Some of the other languages I develop in like Python and PHP blow my mind in some ways because they really do some unneccessary stuff... but in my opinion VBA is the best language their is. By the way... in case you didn't already know, VBA is the language of the Visual Basic I.D.E. As you probably know VBA has many different flavors depending on it's I.D.E. wether it's Access or Excel, Word or VB... it's really a powerful language but one thats a lot of times underestimated.

 

[sixHat]

Oh and yes I got my start building standard Access databases without VBA as well. I didn't even know VBA existed until a friend introduced it to me. I learned it at first as a novelty... but then I got serious into it. But likewise my first databases without VBA where powerful and functioned very well.

 

[lala]

oh i don't underestimate access and vba at all. i'm in love with it, it's almost an obsession of mine for 10 years. i self learned it because it interested me so much that i had no problem staying up nights messing with it.

but it seems like access is perceived as something not serious, not powerful enough. in my experience access can do ANYTHING and once you start using excel, outlook and word vba - amazing things can be done.

i'm now using it to automate complicated reports. i work for a large company, they don't use access except for tables and queries and they automate by using sql stored procedures. so whatever they can't automate - i automate with access. there was nothing i wasn't able to do with it.

i'm the biggest fan of microsoft)))) ms access with an sql/oracle backend and with ms office is an amazing package and no one can tell me different.