Tabbed Pages Not Visible

[depawl]

Hello: I have a form with 4 pages that I created using Tab Control. Somewhere along the way I noticed that when I open the form in form view the page tabs are not visible. I have to scroll up slightly in order to be able to see them. I've literally been at this for days but have not been able to resolve the issue. Strangely enough, when I open the form in Access 2007 the problem does not occur (the database was developed and will be used in Access 2003). Now this may not seem like that big of a deal but I know that my users will be none to pleased if they have to scroll up every time they open the form to enter data. I've attached a couple images (before scrolling and after scrolling) to give an idea of what I'm talking about. If anyone has any suggestions at all I would be most appreciative.

 

[MarkK]

Looks like the form is too high for the available space. Try making it shorter.

 

[depawl]

Believe me, I have tried resizing, downsizing, upsizing. Tried shortening each page, tried shortening the tab control, tried shortening the design section of the form, makes no difference.

 

[missinglinq]

You need to make sure that the first control to receive focus, i.e. the control with Tab Index of 0 (zero) is near the top of the form. Currently the first one to first receive focus is far enough down the form to cause it to scroll up.

But lagbolt has a very good point. Forms that are so long that the user has to scroll to see all of it is very user-unfriendly. The usual solution to this, ironically, is to use tabbed pages.

 

[depawl]

I verified that the first "comments" box on each page has a tab order of 0. I also reduced the length of each page so that scrolling is not necessary.
Makes no difference, tabs still do not display.

 

[missinglinq]

I wasn't talking about the tabbed pages. Which control on the main part of the form, not the tabbed pages, receives focus first?

 

[depawl]

There are no controls on the main part of the form, they are all on the tabbed pages.
thanks.

 

[depawl]

If I reduce the height of each page on the form enough so that scrolling is not necessary (i.e. - all of the info on each page can be seen without scrolling) then the tabs reappear. However, I have another (similar) form in this same database that is long enough so that it does require scrolling, and the tabbed pages appear fine in it.

 

[sullyman]

Is the Vertical Anchor setting set to both and causing it to stretch?

 

[depawl]

Not sure what you mean by vertical anchor setting. Pls. explain, thanks.

 

[sullyman]

I have a tabbed form. I can go into design mode, click on the outer border of the tabbed page and view it's properties. There are two options - horizontal and vertical where you can choose to anchor the tabbed section to the left, right, top, bottom or both.

 

[depawl]

Whaat version of Access are you running? I didn't see that setting in the properties of either the tab control or the individual pages.

 

[depawl]

I found a work around (thanks to missingling for pointing me in this direction) by placing a "dummy" control at the top of the main form and giving it a tab stop of "0". This forces it to be visible when the form is opened and the tabs then display below. Not ideal but it works, at least until (or should I say if) I find the solution. Wondering if perhaps my version of Access has some corruption? I'm going to try this an another computer running Access 2003 and see what it does.
Thanks again.

 

[missinglinq]

That was going to be my next suggestion. Glad you got it working!

 

[depawl]

Still makes me wonder why one form acts this way and another (very similar) one in the same db works fine. One of the wonders of Access I guess.

 

[missinglinq]

As John Walton used to say "Life's a mystery!" Regular use of Access certainly supports this statement!