Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 19: Advanced Access Form Techniques

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in the Pages collection. If the second page is selected, the Value property returns 1 , and so on.

The page’s position within the collection corresponds to the value of the PageIndex property for

that page.

A tab control can contain virtually any type of control, including text boxes, combo and list boxes,

option buttons and check boxes, and OLE objects. A tab control can even include other tab controls!

Although a form can contain multiple tab controls, it’s probably not a good idea to overload the user

by putting more than one tab control on a form. After all, the reason you use tab controls in an appli-

cation is to simplify the form by fitting multiple pages of controls within a single control. In most

cases, there is no point in challenging the user with more than one tab control on a form.

Using Dialog Boxes to Collect Information

The dialog box is one of the most valuable user-interface components in Windows applications.

When properly implemented, dialog boxes provide a way to extend the available screen space on

the computer. Instead of having to place every text box, option button, and other user input con-

trol on the main form, dialog boxes provide a handy way to move some of these controls to a con-

venient pop-up device that is on the screen only when needed.

Dialog boxes usually collect a certain type of information, such as font attributes or hard-copy param-

eters. Dialog boxes are a valuable way to prefilter or qualify user input without cluttering the main

form. Or use a dialog box to allow the user to enter query criteria before running a query that popu-

lates a form or report, or to gather information that is added to a report’s header or footer area.

Although they are forms, dialog boxes should not look like or behave as other forms in the applica-

tion do. Dialog boxes often pop up over the user’s work. When properly implemented, dialog

boxes also provide a means to simply cancel the query without breaking anything on the user’s

workspace.

A typical query form implemented as a dialog box is shown in Figure 19.16. This simple form

gathers information that is used to query the database for order information.

FIGURE 19.16

A dialog box used to collect data for an ad hoc query