Part IV: Professional Database Development
1096
FIGURE 31.6A splash screen not only increases perceived speed of your application, but it also gives your application a
professional appearance.
On the CD-ROM
Figure 31.6 shows the design window for a splash screen template that you can use when building your own
applications. This form is included in the Chapter31.accdb database. It’s named frmSplashScreen.
Import this form into your application and use it as a template for creating your own splash screen.
Most splash screens contain information such as the following:l (^) The application’s title
l The application’s version number
l (^) Your company information
l A copyright notice (© Copyright)
In addition, you might want to include the licensee information and/or a picture on the splash
screen. If you use a picture on your splash screen, make it relevant to your application’s function.
For example, some coins and an image of a check could be used for a check-writing application. If
you want, you can also use clip art for your splash screen — just be sure that the picture is clear
and concise and doesn’t interfere with the text information presented on your splash screen.
To implement the splash screen, have your application load the splash form before it does any-
thing else. (Consider making your splash screen the Display Form in the Application Options,
described earlier in this chapter.) When your application finishes all its initialization procedures,
close the form. Make the splash form a light form and convert any bitmaps that you place on your
splash screen to pictures in order to decrease the splash form’s load time.