Main form flickers when opening a pop-up form (1 Viewer)

[gojets1721]

I can't explain the problem, but I found the fix. Make the popup form modal.

1. Personally I hate huge, wide popup forms that take over my whole screen. I find them intrusive and they make me angry as yours did. I moved the form to the second monitor so I could see this webpage but that didn't move the access window and because the form is both popup and Model, I was locked out of the Access window and so had to close the form (at least you didn't remove the x) so I could move the access window to the other screen so I could look at your directions at the same time as the app.
2. The complaints form doesn't need to be that wide.
3. Having two forms bound to the same table open at the same time is the road to disaster. At a minimum, you MUST save the current record BEFORE opening the popup but I would rethink the design.

Hmmm it doesn't seem to work for me. I changed it to modal and it is still flickering...

See attached. Was there anything else you changed?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Interesting. By the time I got to that point, I had made the mainform a normal form by removing model and popup. since the flicker still happened, it didn't occur to me to go back and redownload the app to go back to ground 0 and just retry the last change.

 

[isladogs]

I agree with Pat's comments in general but also didn't find making the popup modal helped reduce flicker
Instead I suggest closing the main form when the popup is opened and reopening it when the popup is closed.
Flicker eliminated completely

You would obviously want to return to the same record in the main form which I haven't done

 

[Pat Hartman]

@isladogs did you also make the mainform normal instead of modal and popup? It may be the combination of doing that and changing the popup to Modal = yes that fixed the flicker for me or maybe it eventually goes away if you open/close the form enough

Also, don't close the first form. Just hide it

Me.Visible = False
DoCmd.OpenForm .... '''''' only works for Model forms
Me.Visible = True

Obviously this only works when the form being opened is model because otherwise, the code in the main form doesn't stop so it would just immediately show the original form after opening the modal and not wait for the form to close.

 

[isladogs]

@isladogs did you also make the mainform normal instead of modal and popup? It may be the combination of doing that and changing the popup to Modal = yes that fixed the flicker for me or maybe it eventually goes away if you open/close the form enough

No I didn't ... but I have now - still flickers just as before

Also, don't close the first form. Just hide it

Me.Visible = False
DoCmd.OpenForm .... '''''' only works for Model forms
Me.Visible = True

Obviously this only works when the form being opened is model because otherwise, the code in the main form doesn't stop so it would just immediately show the original form after opening the modal and not wait for the form to close.

Yes I did try that & it works whether or not the popup form is modal ...but in neither case does it prevent the flicker.
Even if you prevent screen repainting, it still flickers

The only way I found to prevent any flickering was what I suggested. Close the main form when opening the popup

 

[Pat Hartman]

The only way I found to prevent any flickering was what I suggested. Close the main form when opening the popup

You mean hiding it doesn't work?

I wonder if this is a version issue? I'll check mine when I get home.

 

[isladogs]

You mean hiding it doesn't work

Correct! It flickers when made visible again. That's why I said closing it was the only way that worked for me.

 

[Pat Hartman]

OK, but you might have mentioned the flicker after the reopen. Very strange behavior.

 

[isladogs]

I thought this made it clear enough:

Yes I did try that & it works whether or not the popup form is modal ...but in neither case does it prevent the flicker.
Even if you prevent screen repainting, it still flickers

 

[Pat Hartman]

I guess I should have interpreted "prevent screen painting" with hiding the form. OK. My bad.

 

[isladogs]

I guess I should have interpreted "prevent screen painting" with hiding the form. OK. My bad.

You asked if I had tried hiding the form and I said I had tried that.
As part of that I also tried 'Preventing screen painting' - I meant exactly that - I tried both Application.Echo False and Screen.Painting=False.
Neither stopped the flicker

 

[gojets1721]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll probably just keep it the way it is. It's useful to still have the main form open, as you can quickly refer to it without having to exit the pop up form. The flickering is ultimately just a visual nuisance so we can deal with it