Making forms look better? (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

I've always been more of a functional person, making sure that something works and then perhaps make it look better afterwards.

For my personal databases I've pretty much used what Access offered with the wizards.

From a link in another post I looked at the sample Vehicle database and like the look of the form header and the transparent buttons.

The buttons appear to be on a toolbar, yet I cannot see how this is done.?
I've looked at the Form Auto Format Wizard, but just appears to set a theme?

How has the header been created with a fading to the top and this 'toolbar' please?

TIA

would be better if you supplied the db, so all I can do is guess

can't see any buttons, so can't comment on that

as far as the fading is concerned, a guess would be an image control or perhaps a button set to the same size as the header and utilizing gradient and/or shading properties

Hi CJ,

Thanks for the reply.

I have finally managed to do it by going into the MS template and creating a new style from that form.
The Form View for that form is attached.

Gives me a little more room on my forms if I copy their layout.

Still clueless on how it was done though.

As an aside is there a way to make the wizard use this layout from now on, as presently I have to amend any form created by the wizard.?

You can just add normal buttons in the form header.
You can create a thema and then save it. Later you can apply it to all your forms.

I use access 2016 and during the wizard there is no option to change the layout :/ So best you can do is use the wizard for the content and after change the form to your liking.
Not sure if you already have a descent db file. But if you have, give it to us and we can take a look at the layout.

Still clueless on how it was done though

Click to expand...

clearly you haven't looked at my suggestion

OK, buttons are just standard with back color set to transparent or to match the colour behind. Borde4r is transparent and a picture has been added and arrangement property set to right or left, not sure which without checking

the shading still looks to me like a button which has been disabled and locked (and sent to back) and special formatting applied. So nothing tricky.

You will probably find some code in the form resize event which resizes the shading button to match the header width and keeps the close button to the right of the form.

So far as I know, no, wizard is just about creating a predetermined layout based on layout selection and the recordsource. What you have is a template which, if I am right per above has specifically formatted controls.

Forget the wizard and use the template.

For existing forms, you will just have to either remake them from the template or copy and paste all the header controls to replace whatever is there at the moment - and don't forget any underlying code I have alluded to may exist.

Or you can have your template with just the header then copy and paste detail and footer sections, plus associated code.

However chances are the buttons are form specific so you will need to change to code there as well

You can create a thema and then save it

Click to expand...

I would point out that themes do not include for example the image on a button - that still needs to be specified. Also I believe if you set certain settings on a control, then themes are ignored for that control. No idea if that would be the case for this thread.

Nor does a theme affect sizing or positioning of controls

Thank you Grumm,

I've just inserted the table and form for Client.
For some reason, although it looks OK in design mode and form view in my db it takes up the whole screen when in form view in the exported db?

Grumm said:

You can just add normal buttons in the form header.
You can create a thema and then save it. Later you can apply it to all your forms.

I use access 2016 and during the wizard there is no option to change the layout :/ So best you can do is use the wizard for the content and after change the form to your liking.
Not sure if you already have a descent db file. But if you have, give it to us and we can take a look at the layout.

Click to expand...