Transparent fill in forms? - Main menu stiwchboard idea

[Chrisopia]

I thought, from a GUI point of view, the main "switchboard" menu would look better instead of a box with buttons in it.

I figured I could use an image (the company logo) and have the buttons floating around it.

It was a comment made from the end users, who are all graphic designers... I thought it would be possible if I could fill the background in transparent and remove frames I could acheive this affect?

 

[jsv2002]

Why not set the background image of the form as the logo?

Ahh... do you mean floating buttons as an animated form?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

can you not do this by just putting a large image on the switchboard, and sending it to the back, anyway?

the issue with complex graphics is that its often hard to read data from them.

The other way is to put all your menu options in a menubar, and manage that, rather than (or even as well as) a full screen switchboard.

 

[Chrisopia]

oh? How do you create menu bars?... that way sounds much cleaner?

Then I could use the logo as a background image and everyones happy!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

view

toolbars

customize

------------
you can programmatically grey unavailable options etc, just like any normal system menu - but its a bit fiddly, and help is not too forthcoming

google and search here - i'm sure there are lots of examples

 

[Chrisopia]

I figured some things out... thanks for the help.

One problem I do have is that mine is Access 07, and instead of a toolbar, there is a bar along the top of the screen where buttons are applied to.
By default there is only a save, undo, and redo button.

I will look into it further and report back.
Thanks!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i imagine programming ribbons in A2007 is different to handling menubars. - I have no experience of this.

I think in A2007 you can set transparency on forms/controls anyway - so perhaps you and the graphics team can get a suitable appearance with those facilities