Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Part III: More-Advanced Access Techniques

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When using subforms within subforms, use the following syntax:

Forms![FormName]![SubformControlName]. _

Form![SubSubformControlName].Form.SubSubFormProperty

Forms![FormName]![SubformControlName]. _

Form![SubSubformControlName].Form.[ControlName]

Forms![FormName]![SubformControlName]. _

Form![SubSubformControlName].Form.[ControlName] _

.ControlProperty

Designing Forms

Following is a grab bag of form design tips that you might find handy. I hope they inspire you to

come up with many more on your own!

Using the Tab Stop property

From time to time, you might place a control on a form that is intended to trigger a fairly drastic

result, such as deleting a record, or printing a long report. If you want to reduce the risk that the

user might activate this control by accident, you might want to make use of the Tab Stop prop-

erty, which specifies whether you can use the Tab key to move the focus to the control.

For example, suppose you’ve placed a command button named cmdDelete on a form that deletes

the current record. You don’t want the user to click this button by mistake. Modify the Tab Stop

property of cmdDelete to No to remove the button from the form’s tab order (the default is Yes).

A user will have to explicitly click on the button to activate it, and the user won’t be able to acci-

dentally choose it while entering data.

Tallying check boxes

If you ever need to count the number of True values in a check-box control, consider using the

following expression:

Sum(Abs([CheckBoxControl]))

Abs converts every –1 to 1, and the Sum function adds them up. To count False values, use the

following expression:

Sum([CheckBoxControl] + 1)

Each True values (–1) is converted to 0 and each False value ( 0 ) is converted to 1 before being

summed.

Adding animation

Using the Timer event, you can pretty simply add animation to Access forms. You can move a

control on the form at quick intervals or rapidly change the appearance of the control. To create

the appearance of animation: