Microsoft Web Viewer (My First Post)

[diannosd]

Hi All,

First of all what a great site. I have already downloaded some samples which I think I will find useful. I have been tasked with writing a database to store details of companies which in essence, even for me is quite easy. The one thing though I am struggling with is the best way of storing an image of the company website as a linked form and then when clicking on it, act as a hyper link which goes to the site concerned. I am really "rusty" at Access but quite good at adapting code given to me. So you know I have tried, this is what I have so far.

A table called companies with a primary key called CompanyId which is simply an autonumber. As well as lots of fields such as postcode, No Of Employees etc there is also a field called Website. Mini question, can I control the input for this field so it is always in the right format? I then got snapshots for lots of websites and saved the images on a folder on my pc. Each picture is named 1,2,3 etc where the number is the same as the Company ID. Using some code I found on the internet, I created a table called Artwork, which stores a link for every image and a field called Artwork ID e.g 1,2, 3 etc.

So...I have a form with lots of tabs e.g. Address, Company Notes, Contacts, and General Information. On this tab, I have put a subform which has a photoframe. The data source for the subform is a query which finds the record in my table Artwork with the Field ArtworkID the same as Company ID on my main form. In the current event for my form, if there is a website, I then use this to make the hyperlink for the photoframe equal the webpage details. It does work ok...but, I really can't help but think its looks a little unprofessional(the images are not always the same size) and want to make it look really nice. So can I do 1 of the following;

1 (best Choice) Instead of a photo frame have the Activex Microsoft WebViewer which as a source has the website stored in the website field. I did try this but obviously the whole webpage image does not fit in the embedded object. Is it possible to shrink the webpage image so that it always fits into the Activex object as if it were a mini tv. This would be brilliant because it would always be an up to date image. I saw some examples about zooming in and out which is why I'm asking.

2 (Plan B). Still using the webpage stored in my field, grab the image from the site and store that picture on my pc...i.e. Company ID 5 is Microsoft. Go to microsoft.com....grab the image and call it 5.jpeg on my pc.


Finally, this database was requested by my managing director who strangle thinks Im very good at Access,,,,Arrrrrrr !! lol I wanted to add some fancy features which will impress. For example, I really like the sample for making a form translucent which I think I will use. I was wondering if it were possible to make the web site object look "alive" with some kind of animation such as in powerpoint..for example rotation...

Sorry for such a long question....I really hope some one can assist.

 

[wiklendt]

i would forget impressing your boss and concetrate on just getting the thing to work in the first place. prioritise your needs, and when the absolute mandatory has been achieved, then look into prettying it up. if he can't do it himself, i think he'll be impressed you got it working in the first place. he won't be impressed if it takes you 2 years to make a simple database, though.

to get your images to look the same size, click on your image frame. there is a property in the format tab called "size mode" set this to "stretch" - it will force all images to fit the frame exactly. i would be careful to ensure the images are as close to the correct ratio to fit this frame, otherwise your images will look ghastly and too stretched - it will nullify your attempts to impress the boss.

as for getting access to go to the website, creating an image, importing it back into access, display the result? - forget it, you'd be getting in over your head. it's a nice idea but i have a simpler solution - sounds like your company has uninterrupted internet access... why not just have a hyperlink (or a button or whatever) taking you directly to the website? that way you will ALWAYS be able to see the lastest vesion of their website, and always be able to see it 'zoomed in' (maximise the browser window). no f-ing around, just a simple hyperlink. keep the pic if you want, that fine, though. this approach will give you time to make the rest of the database functional.

keep focussed, man.

as another suggestion on aethetics, first you can google "access form aesthetics" and get lots of hits, second, as a personal favour to me, PLEASE don't leave the form colour the awful default gray, and PLEASE, when you change the form colour, DON'T leave the "sunken" effect on the fields!! (you will never see a 'pretty' sample db, but that's b/c these are created to demonstrate functionality and are usually 'whipped up' quickly - unless they specifically demonstrate aesthetics, which very little do - a lot of sample 'aesthetic' databases don't look visually appealing to me.)

in terms of fancy zooming animations, while it think this is probably unlikely to be possible, it would distract from the utility of the database and rather than impressing your boss would make him rather think you've wasted time - unless he's specifically asked you to do this. it reminds me of when websites were becoming popular for people to make - they crammed anything 'fancy' into it to impress people browsing their sites, but it all ended up looking like a dog's breakfast.

you are not programming a playstion game - the purpose of a database is not interactivity but data management and reporting (as its basis).

use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). but look for elegance - the "high-end boutique" look. plain white (NEVER NEVER use black or dark colours as a background - unless you're working some some cult/goth/werid-arse heavy metal/etc company) with warm/soft colours as border and fill on entry fields, and no borders (for example) on field names - and for god's sake change the font! Acces 2007 has the right idea with "calibri", i like that one. 11pt seems to work well.

i also like 'verdana', but never tried it in a form (only in word for paper docs), so can't say if it's a good choice.

regarding the translucency of forms, this can be tricky to implement, so i suggest you leave this till you have the database functional for what the original aim of it was for. Not to mention it may make things hard to see on the form. again, focus and KISS.

that's my 2c - or is that $2? LOL ;-)

agnieszka.