Designing the Graphical Space: Gripe Session.

[Thales750]

I just wanted to take a moment to whine about the the graphic tools (or lack of) and layout options in Access. You would think after 30 something years it would be at least be only 25 years behind.

There, I'm done now.

 

[Minty]

I agree, it is a bit of a Dinasour from that perspective.
Simple things like curved text controls and flexible form layouts would be a massive boost.

They can be achieved but not without either kludging or massive amounts of code.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yep, spot-on. Even something so simple as an oval/circle would be nice because you could use it to simulate a big red button or perhaps some staging lights.

 

[isladogs]

Yep, spot-on. Even something so simple as an oval/circle would be nice because you could use it to simulate a big red button or perhaps some staging lights.

Your wish is my command!

All done using standard tools available in the ribbon

 

[CJ_London]

been available since 2007 - but shame it can only be applied to buttons - would be good if they could be applied to other controls as well. I first raised it with MS a few years ago and several times since but so far, nowt. I place a disabled button behind a control with transparent back and borders to simulate but seems a waste of controls to me.

 

[Isaac]

My apps sound pretty boring by comparison to you guys'. I guess I make heavy use of labels (with a single space as the Hyperlink Address property, which gives the hyperlink hand effect), and very simple buttons.

Whenever I want to get crazy with it, I just go for icons - usually using a word document in order to place a transparent icon "on top of" a screenshot of color that looks the same as my displayed form, thus giving a transparent icon look. With modern Access versions and for all you icon experts that may not even be necessary - but it takes me about 60 seconds and I never invested the time to learn any other way.

 

[Thales750]

Not to mention no resolution scaling, although since the 1080P standard this is less trouble than it used to be.

Or zooming in,when designing densely populated forms. I guess Win 10 kind of handles that.

 

[isladogs]

Not to mention no resolution scaling, although since the 1080P standard this is less trouble than it used to be.

Or zooming in,when designing densely populated forms. I guess Win 10 kind of handles that.

Automatic form resizing handles resolution scaling perfectly.
See my extended article Automatic Form Resizing 1 - Mendip Data Systems which includes an example app together with all the code required..
It also includes an optional form zoom feature designed both for those with less than perfect eyesight and for anyone to zoom in as described above.

FWIW the Access team is supposedly looking at ways of integrating this feature into Access itself....but I doubt it will happen any time soon.

 

[isladogs]

Also, here's an OnOff toggle similar to that used on iPhones

As the screenshot shows, I'm grateful to Chris Arnold for suggesting how this could be achieved

 

[Thales750]

Automatic form resizing handles resolution scaling perfectly.
See my extended article Automatic Form Resizing 1 - Mendip Data Systems which includes an example app together with all the code required..
It also includes an optional form zoom feature designed both for those with less than perfect eyesight and for anyone to zoom in as described above.

FWIW the Access team is supposedly looking at ways of integrating this feature into Access itself....but I doubt it will happen any time soon.

Good Job, thanks

 

[isladogs]

You're welcome. Did you try the example app?

 

[Thales750]

You're welcome. Did you try the example app?

I'm sorry I have not. For the last four years, every computer that is hooked up to my databases is running on 1080P.
I don't know of a single computer that hasn't switched.
The "good job" part was based on knowing your reputation for excellence, and accomplishing that would have been a difficult task requiring out-of-the-box thinking. So, thanks for that contribution.

 

[isladogs]

You are very fortunate not to have to worry about different monitor sizes, shapes and resolutions. In over 20 years of database development, I have never been in that position.

Anyway, you could still use some of the AFR code to allow users to zoom in on a form or part of it. As an example, here is a screenshot taken from the second part of that web article.

 

[Thales750]

You are very fortunate not to have to worry about different monitor sizes, shapes and resolutions. In over 20 years of database development, I have never been in that position.

Anyway, you could still use some of the AFR code to allow users to zoom in on a form or part of it. As an example, here is a screenshot taken from the second part of that web article.

View attachment 90224

I don't have very many customer/clients. They are all fairly large so their IT department just made it happen.
I will check out your AFR code.