Background colour of individual records

[JoshuaAnthony]

Hi,

I can only find ways to change the background colour of whole controls or selections. What I would like however, is to highlight individual records displayed in the same listbox (to represent priority). Is this possible?

Thanks,

Joshua

 

[WayneRyan]

Josh,

Nope,

Well you asked. You could look at a continuous subform and
use conditional formatting. Other that that you'll need a 3rd
party add-in.

Wayne

 

[JoshuaAnthony]

I thought it might have had something to do with what is described here but my table fields don't seem to have that property...

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk...&threadid=16072&highlight=record+color+colour

 

[WayneRyan]

Joshua,

Do you have a continuous form & A2000 or above? If so, you
need to look for Conditional Formatting. Use the Search
Facility here.

If you're talking about a listbox, then Access won't let you do
that. You'll have to look at a third party solution.

Wayne

 

[JoshuaAnthony]

I have A2002. What do you mean by a "continuous" form (/subform). I can't seem to find any information on that.

For the listbox option, what third party solutions should I search for? Do you know of any that wouldn't be too much trouble (or too costly) to implement?

 

[WayneRyan]

Joshua,

Access controls (combos and listboxes) will not let you change
the color of individual "rows".

A form is a different matter. In your version of Access, you can
get the form in design view and, if your form is continuous,
you can define how individual records "look" based on some
criteria.

See Access Help or use the Search Facility here for "Continuous".

Wayne

 

[JoshuaAnthony]

Sorry, the help function in Access tells me about conditional formatting but only for controls or selections rather than individual records. "Continuous forms" or "continuous" doesn't seem to yield anything useful in Access Help either. What IS a continuous form as opposed to the normal form that you would design? Although, I've found quite a few posts regarding conditional forms and subforms, they all seem to assume that I know what one is and how to make one! Do you just set up conditional formatting for individual records on a continuous form the way you would for controls on a normal form?

Thanks,

Joshua

 

[WayneRyan]

Josh,

A continuous form is a form that let's you use the vertical scroll
bar to traverse the records. They're neat because you can
display mult-records per window, and scroll through them
quickly with the vertical bar as opposed to the "akward"
navigation buttons that Access provides.

Trying to format them, has always been a hassle. If you changed
the attribute of any row, they all changed! In that sense, they
are like list or combo boxes.

In A2000, they let you specifiy conditions "conditional" formatting
that would let you show, for example, a negative balance as RED.
So that columns can have a different appearance on different
condition present in the record.

They're neat forms, but since (I think) there is a certain
ambiguity in their definition, Access tends to treat them as "one"
element, rather than individual records. They do not let you think
"horizontally" for formatting, at least with an eye towards doing
something to an entire "row". That appears to be too specific.

If you use the Help facility here and look for "Continuous", without
the quotes, you'll find a few threads dealing with this topic.

Wayne

 

[JoshuaAnthony]

Again, nothing really telling me how to make a continuous form as opposed to a "normal" form.

These messages are the closest to helping me do what I want but it only seems to suggest that it is possible rather than telling me how!
http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56501&highlight=continuous
http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61124&highlight=continuous

I do appreciate the help, I just seem to be going around in circles though!

 

[JoshuaAnthony]

One suggestion I have seen was to make the listbox background colour transparent and have other listboxes (the size of a single entry) highlighted depending on conditions with the main listbox as the top object (or that's what it seemed like they were suggesting). That seems fine except that when i try to make my main listbox's background colour 'transparent', 'transparent' is "greyed out" so I can't select it?! Know how I could get around that at all (and what is causing it)?

Thanks,

Joshua