Tabs are a mess! How to fix? (1 Viewer)

[tommu319]

I have inherited a database that has passed through several administrators and is now a mess.… for me to clean up! And I am a relative newbie.

One problem I can't seem to fix, or even affect at all, is the tab sequence. No matter what I do in terms of manually moving them or Auto-ordering them or anything else seems to work. It works for the moment, but when I switch back to Form View, they revert back. Seems to me that perhaps all of the fields, although they all come from the same table, are not laid out on the same form.. although it is just one form. Very odd... Any suggestions?

Is there perhaps a way to clear ALL tabs and start afresh?

TIA

 

[GinaWhipp]

There might be some event in the On_Open, On_Current or On_Activate event of the Form that is setting the order. Have you checked that?

 

[tommu319]

There might be some event in the On_Open, On_Current or On_Activate event of the Form that is setting the order. Have you checked that?

I had not.. but have now... and see nothing that would appear to be doing that... Must be something else.

 

[tommu319]

I had not.. but have now... and see nothing that would appear to be doing that... Must be something else.

Seems Odd that depending on how I go to look at the Tab Order... I get two different views. Seems the fields in what I have called TabOrder2... do not show up in TabOrder1.… and there is a grey box near SOME of the fields, but not all. Again, all very odd (to me).

 

[GinaWhipp]

They are separate, one is the Tab Order for the Tab Control and the other is the Tab Order for the Form. So, what are trying to change the Tab Order of?

 

[tommu319]

They are separate, one is the Tab Order for the Tab Control and the other is the Tab Order for the Form. So, what are trying to change the Tab Order of?

First, please remember that you are dealing with a real NEWBIE!! But trying my best to learn.

What I want to do is set the form up so that an operator can tab from field to field in normal sequence. Now it seems that after the Suffix field the tab goes somewhere not even close to there... on a different part of the overall form. I want it to go to Street Number, then Street Prefix etc.

Thanks again for your help. I am looking at Access-Diva and will dig in there deeper once I get this under control.

Tom

 

[GinaWhipp]

You are correct, will do my best to remember that! We were ALL beginners once.

In image TabControl2.jpg, that appears to be the one you want to fix. First select Auto Order at the bottom and then review the order. If not what you want, click on the one you to move and then hover over the highlighted one click to and hold to move to the new desired position.

 

[theDBguy]

Hi. If you still can't get it to work, you might consider posting a sample copy of your db with test data.

 

[tommu319]

You are correct, will do my best to remember that! We were ALL beginners once.

In image TabControl2.jpg, that appears to be the one you want to fix. First select Auto Order at the bottom and then review the order. If not what you want, click on the one you to move and then hover over the highlighted one click to and hold to move to the new desired position.

I hear you, and understand what you are saying... but the problem is that some of the tab fields I want are on one popup (TabOrder1) and some are on the other (TabOrder2). I have no idea how or why they are separated.. but they are and therefore can not seem to accomplish the order I am looking for. They need to all be on the one in order to accomplish my desired Tab Order.

Tom

 

[theDBguy]

I hear you, and understand what you are saying... but the problem is that some of the tab fields I want are on one popup (TabOrder1) and some are on the other (TabOrder2). I have no idea how or why they are separated.. but they are and therefore can not seem to accomplish the order I am looking for. They need to all be on the one in order to accomplish my desired Tab Order.

Tom

Hi Tom. Tab orders are grouped by section. If you're trying to move or tab from one control to another in a different form section or subcontrol, you may have to use VBA (or macro).

 

[tommu319]

Hi Tom. Tab orders are grouped by section. If you're trying to move or tab from one control to another in a different form section or subcontrol, you may have to use VBA (or macro).

Oh boy... that sounds complex.. and difficult.

I am not sure if my fields are in different sections... not sure how to know, but they are all meant to be together one after the other.

 

[theDBguy]

Oh boy... that sounds complex.. and difficult.

I am not sure if my fields are in different sections... not sure how to know, but they are all meant to be together one after the other.

As I was saying earlier, we might be able to help you better, if you could post a sample copy of your db.

 

[GinaWhipp]

Yeah, well tabbing between two Forms and\or Tabs does require VBA. However, If I understand you correctly you really want them all on one Tab (of Form). Did you consider moving the controls around and putting them where you want them? Or is that not something you want to take on?

 

[tommu319]

Yeah, well tabbing between two Forms and\or Tabs does require VBA. However, If I understand you correctly you really want them all on one Tab (of Form). Did you consider moving the controls around and putting them where you want them? Or is that not something you want to take on?

Unless I am misunderstanding the definition of the word "Tabs" (not tab stops) then all of my fields are already all on the one Tab. And no, I am not concerned about taking on anything (I see it as a learning experience) but again, I do think the fields that I want to change the tab stops of, are all on the same tab of one form.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Using a tab control takes a little finesse. Sounds like you have some fields that are on the "form" and some that are on a tab. The controls on the "form" are bleeding through and so you see them.

The key to placing controls on a tab page is Knowing that the tab page turns black when it has the focus so the control will go onto the tab page and not on the underlying form.

Without having the db, we don't have any way of knowing which controls are the problem. You can identify them via the tab order problem. So, the field you see after the suffix but which is not getting focus when you think it should is either on the tab or on the form but is the opposite of the fields that "work". So, you would need to delete that control, select the tab page and paste it onto the tab page.

Have fun

 

[tommu319]

Using a tab control takes a little finesse. Sounds like you have some fields that are on the "form" and some that are on a tab. The controls on the "form" are bleeding through and so you see them.

The key to placing controls on a tab page is Knowing that the tab page turns black when it has the focus so the control will go onto the tab page and not on the underlying form.

Without having the db, we don't have any way of knowing which controls are the problem. You can identify them via the tab order problem. So, the field you see after the suffix but which is not getting focus when you think it should is either on the tab or on the form but is the opposite of the fields that "work". So, you would need to delete that control, select the tab page and paste it onto the tab page.

Have fun

Ouch! That sounds difficult.. but I do (think) I understand what you are saying.. and if you are right.. I see a lot of work ahead of me. Let me have a look and come back here...

Tom

 

[Pat Hartman]

I had a thought. Expand the size of the form and move the tab control around. You should see the problem controls left in place as you move away the tab control.

Or,it might be easier to just rebuild the form. You can copy all the code so don't worry about that. Even a form with a lot of controls can be rebuilt in a half hour. It is much less intensive than doing it the first time.

Go to the Options and turn off Name Autocorrect. You can turn it back on when you are done with this exercise if you want it on (not recommended unless you know how it actually works which most people don't.) Name auto correct can be helpful but in this particular case where we are renaming objects but we don't want to keep the new names. NAC just causes problems.

Make a copy of your old form because I want you to delete the controls as you move them to make sure you don't miss anything. Also rename the original form.
Start a new form with the old form name.
Copy and paste the controls you want directly on the form. Use cntl-x because you want to delete the controls you copy as you go.
Create the tab control and all the pages you want. I prefer to name the pages rather than to let Access name them. It makes it easier for me if I want to write code that goes to a specific tab. I can go to pgInvoice rather than page47
Select the controls you want to move to pg1.
Select the tab control and then the page so you can see the boarder.
Paste the controls on the tab page. Move the tab page so you can reassure yourself that the controls ended up on the tab control and not directly on the form.

 

[tommu319]

I had a thought. Expand the size of the form and move the tab control around. You should see the problem controls left in place as you move away the tab control.

Or,it might be easier to just rebuild the form. You can copy all the code so don't worry about that. Even a form with a lot of controls can be rebuilt in a half hour. It is much less intensive than doing it the first time.

Go to the Options and turn off Name Autocorrect. You can turn it back on when you are done with this exercise if you want it on (not recommended unless you know how it actually works which most people don't.) Name auto correct can be helpful but in this particular case where we are renaming objects but we don't want to keep the new names. NAC just causes problems.

Make a copy of your old form because I want you to delete the controls as you move them to make sure you don't miss anything. Also rename the original form.
Start a new form with the old form name.
Copy and paste the controls you want directly on the form. Use cntl-x because you want to delete the controls you copy as you go.
Create the tab control and all the pages you want. I prefer to name the pages rather than to let Access name them. It makes it easier for me if I want to write code that goes to a specific tab. I can go to pgInvoice rather than page47
Select the controls you want to move to pg1.
Select the tab control and then the page so you can see the boarder.
Paste the controls on the tab page. Move the tab page so you can reassure yourself that the controls ended up on the tab control and not directly on the form.

WOW, a lot of steps.... but I love the idea of trying it. Not much to lose, especially if I do it with a COPY of the current form. Can't get to it immediately, but will before the day (or the weekend) is over. I really, really appreciate you having put so much time into this.

Tom

 

[Pat Hartman]

Been there, done that We were all novices at one point. MY curse is that i remember the basic mistakes I made in the past and frequently remember how to fix them.

Try just moving the tab control around first. if there's only a couple of controls, you can just move those.

 

[tommu319]

Been there, done that We were all novices at one point. MY curse is that i remember the basic mistakes I made in the past and frequently remember how to fix them.

Try just moving the tab control around first. if there's only a couple of controls, you can just move those.

I had a thought. Expand the size of the form and move the tab control around. You should see the problem controls left in place as you move away the tab control.

OK, so I had a brief go at your first suggestion (moving the tab control around) and I can now clearly see the problem. After thinking about it a bit, I believe this will be the easier (?) way to go... rather than rebuilding the entire form.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I'll have more time to work on this approach again... and hopefully get it done. There are a few other things I want to "clean up" while I am at it.. so this will be a fun learning experience. Thanks for putting all the thought into it. I'll let you know how it goes as I proceee.

Tom