Problem with Tab and Scroll in Subform

[BillyTehKid]

Hi,
Thanks in advance for any time you spend on this question!
I have a subform that is made up of multiple fields, with a tabbed control to break up the fields into sections. Still, I'm not able to fit all fields on one screen for some of the pages.

When I 'tab' through the fields in the subform, the page scrolls down to show each active field in turn. (The scroll bar is active.) This is fine.

The problem is that when I look at the subform when it is embedded in its parent form the following happens: I 'tab' through the fields, but the subform doesn't scroll to show the active tab. I end up tabbing through fields but not being able to see what I'm doing because it is 'off screen'. I have to manually use the scroll bar to see what field now has the cursor in it.

Any idea why this is happening?

Many thanks!

Billy Teh Kid

 

[VilaRestal]

It doesn't happen on a little test db I've made trying to replicate it. It scrolls right and down to show the active control on a tab page behind others and off screen at the start.

I can't think of any setting that would change that. Maybe it's just too complicated for Access to deal with. Might be worth creating new forms and copying the controls over in case one is corrupted in any way but I doubt it.

However, I must say that it sounds very user-unfriendly to have tabs and scrollbars together. It should be one or the other, not both together, and only one scrollbar if that. Make the subform bigger, squeeze the controls in tighter, have more tab pages, do whatever it takes. It would bypass your problem and improve the user experience.

 

[BillyTehKid]

I think I might try the option of squeezing more tab pages and controls in to reduce the need for scrolling, as suggested. Thanks.

More context, in case you're interested (?)... I'm undertaking a systematic review of scientific research on a particular medical topic. I have a paper form for extensive critical appraisal of each study and extraction of data on the characteristics of the study, study participants, and study findings. (Part of the idea of a systematic review is to have two people independently critically appraisal and extract data for each study, then to compare the results, in order to reduce bias inherent in interpretation of scientific studies.)

As an example of just one page of this paper form, attached is a screenshot of flowchart to track the number of people who are excluded, refused or lost to follow up at each stage of any one particular study. I find this flowchart a useful way of recording information on these issues from scientific studies because it makes it easier to visualise what happens to each group of participants in a study. You can just record this information in a table format of course, but you lose this visual framework for understanding the data. The problem is to decide how to translate this page of the paper form into the context of an Access Database form. Make the flowchart tiny, with little font? Turn the flowchart sideways to better fit the landscape layout of computer screens? Break the flowchart up into pieces, with action buttons to opens additional parts as needed?

What I probably will end up doing in fact is just having the whole flowchart as one Access Form tab page, using the scroll bars to navigate it, because that would be the simplist solution (I'm making the database for me and one other colleague to use)... but I would be curious to know what solutions people would have to translate this flowchart into an Access form page.

Thanks.

 

[VilaRestal]

At a glance it looks like a wizard would be best - a series of forms asking a series of questions.

I'm not a huge fan of wizards. Generally, I'd rather be asked all questions at once so I can see how they relate to each other (see what questions are coming up - it's annoying to have to press Back to change previous answers when you discover a future question).

However, this diagram does look like a wizard would be appropriate.