When navigating tabs, preventing the loss of first tab?

[ComradeGrumbles]

This is kind of an abstract thing I imagine, and I understand if there's no easy solution (or none at all.) I appreciate any guidance you might have anyways!


First thing: I have a navigation form that leads through 5 subforms on my database. One is a data entry form, the rest are various informative forms with explanations, images and other text mainly. In this scenario, a user enters data on the first tab but doesn't finish it. The user clicks over to check up on some guidelines on the other tabs and then comes back to the first tab for find that all of the fields he entered reset and he lost everything.

Is there a way of preventing this from happening? Plan A would be for me to allow the user to switch around tabs without losing the data he or she entered into textboxes or dropdowns. Plan B would be for me to have a popup that appears when he tries to switch tabs that warns him of data loss and that he should save before moving tabs. Suggestions? I'm an access newbie, so layman's terms are necessary! =D


PS: One other thing: I have the standard Access wizard search button on my first tab that allows the user to search records. This works well, but I'd like for the search box to close immediately after a search turns up a matching record. This seems odd, but the users requested it because manually closing the search box after every search can add up to a lot of wasted time.

Not to overload this post... but one other thing also has come to my attention. The scroll wheel of my mouse stops working after I click on an object in the form (Textbox, dropdown, etc). Is this an Access bug, or can it be fixed?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[vbaInet]

A Navigation form is a special kind of subform that swaps the Source Object depending on which navigation button is selected, so changes made on a form are saved before the swaps takes place. It's normally used for web databases or as a switchboard.

The workaround is too complicated and unnecessary.

So you can create your own navigation form by using:
* a normal form
* a tab control
* subforms in each page of the tab control

 

[ComradeGrumbles]

Thank you for the information on that. It's certainly something that I can explain to the user and let them know that a work around would be extensive and not completely worth while.


As for my other questions about the search box and scroll wheel... are they easier to solve?

Thanks again!

 

[vbaInet]

The other suggestion I gave isn't a workaround. It's just the proper way to create such forms. Like I mentioned, navigation forms are not mainly for data entry.

Probably too many questions in one thread.

PS: One other thing: I have the standard Access wizard search button on my first tab that allows the user to search records. This works well, but I'd like for the search box to close immediately after a search turns up a matching record. This seems odd, but the users requested it because manually closing the search box after every search can add up to a lot of wasted time.

What button are you talking about?

Not to overload this post... but one other thing also has come to my attention. The scroll wheel of my mouse stops working after I click on an object in the form (Textbox, dropdown, etc). Is this an Access bug, or can it be fixed?

It stops working even after you move the focus to the form as well?

 

[ComradeGrumbles]

Probably too many questions in one thread.
What button are you talking about?

The search button I used is the "Record Navigation > Find Record" button in the wizard that appears when you place a new button on the form.

It stops working even after you move the focus to the form as well?

How do I do that? **If you mean by clicking on the form background again, the cursor still stays in whatever textbox it was in and the scroll wheel still does not work**


Thanks again for your help. You've rescued me in quite a few posts so far!

 

[vbaInet]

That search dialog is built-in. You need to create your own if you want to handle when to close it.

That was a question to you. Or you're asking how to move the focus?

 

[ComradeGrumbles]

I'll see what I can find about creating my own search. Thanks for the suggestion!


And as for the focus, I'm wondering how to move the focus back to the form in order to let the scroll wheel work again. As of now, I can't seem to do that. Once a textbox is clicked, there is no going back. The form isn't long, but there are a few fields that fall below the screen and scrolling would be a convenience.

 

[vbaInet]

Here's a good start:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-62.html

By moving the focus to the form I mean clicking anywhere inside the form. If it's easier, upload a sample db and explain how to reproduce the problem.

 

[ComradeGrumbles]

Thanks for the link!

I'll see if I can get a sample database up here if I can't get this solution working. I think I see what you mean by the changing the focus and will give a few things a try.