Is it possible to edit the contents of the Unhide Columns box in the datasheet part of a split form?

[Harry Paraskeva]

Hello to all,

I've been trying to figure whether something is possible and trawling the web has not helped. The question is quite simple: When you right click on the column header in the datasheet part of a split form and select Unhide Fields, a box pops up with the available columns to hide/unhide by ticking them as options. However, is it possible to edit the contents of that box either via commands within the software or via VBA? It is clarified that by editing the contents I mean to be able to remove/restore the columns presented as choices in the box. I'm attaching a photo of the said box. My personal guess is that it is unlikely, but maybe some more experienced user knows of a workaround.

Thank you for any response.

 

[Minty]

Split forms are a bit of law unto themselves, In a normal datasheet view you can hide and unhide columns in vba - no problem.
I'm not sure you can in a inbuilt split form without also hiding the same control in the top section.

 

[jdraw]

You may get some insight from this thread earlier in 2023. AHeyne provides some of his experiences with split forms.

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

You may get some insight from this thread earlier in 2023. AHeyne provides some of his experiences with split forms.

Useful reading, but I did not find anything related to the question. As far as I gather, the split form and datasheet Column Chooser control is not documented, therefore my hopes for being able to edit its contents are rather limited.

 

[theDBguy]

What kind of edits are we talking about?

 

[jdraw]

Useful reading, but I did not find anything related to the question. As far as I gather, the split form and datasheet Column Chooser control is not documented, therefore my hopes for being able to edit its contents are rather limited.

I found AHeyne's info quite helpful because of the lack of info on split forms. I meant the link more as a reference than a specific answer. His material did clear up some issues in the original thread.

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

What kind of edits are we talking about?

Mainly removal of options/columns from the list. For example in the screenshot I would like to remove the AttachmentPath and AttachmentAddress options.

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

I found AHeyne's info quite helpful because of the lack of info on split forms. I meant the link more as a reference than a specific answer. His material did clear up some issues in the original thread.

It is indeed a useful reading and documents aspects not found elsewhere.

 

[isladogs]

You can independently hide/unhide columns in the datasheet portion of a standard split form.
To my mind this can actually be confusing and I have asked that some split form behaviour quirks be fixed.

I suggest you read my article linked below for more details of what you can / cannot do with standard split form and also why you may prefer to 'roll your own'

Build Your Own Split form

The Access split form has several important limitations. This article shows how you can create your own simulated split form which doesn't have the restrictions inherent with the built-in Access split form

isladogs.co.uk

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

You can independently hide/unhide columns in the datasheet portion of a standard split form.
To my mind this can actually be confusing and I have asked that some split form behaviour quirks be fixed.

I suggest you read my article linked below for more details of what you can / cannot do with standard split form and also why you may prefer to 'roll your own'

Build Your Own Split form

The Access split form has several important limitations. This article shows how you can create your own simulated split form which doesn't have the restrictions inherent with the built-in Access split form

isladogs.co.uk

I thought about disabling right-clicking altogether and creating a custom pop-up modal form that would allow the user select columns and then use VBA to hide/unhide them in the datasheet section, but it is too much hassle and not much to be gained. We need a split form cause I'm using a tab control (about 70 fields in 6 tabs) and also got an image preview, as each record has an image associated that is viewed in an unbound image control next to the tab control.

 

[isladogs]

All the alternative examples in my article behave like split forms but without their limitations

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

All the alternative examples in my article behave like split forms but without their limitations

I understood that from the article and it is indeed useful, but even if I do a Detail+Datasheet combination to imitate the traditional split form division, I would still not be able to control the contents of the Column Chooser box for the Datasheet form, right?

 

[isladogs]

Datasheet forms are designed to allow users to add/remove columns in form view. So they are difficult to lock down unless you remove context menus.
However, you can instead use continuous forms in a simulated split form and have more control over what users can/cannot do

 

[Harry Paraskeva]

Datasheet forms are designed to allow users to add/remove columns in form view. So they are difficult to lock down unless you remove context menus.
However, you can instead use continuous forms in a simulated split form and have more control over what users can/cannot do

This confirms my suspicion that editing the contents of the show/hide column selection box is indeed impossible. Thank you for your time and information.

 

[isladogs]

Not completely true. You can for example disable the split form shortcut menu.
Or, as already stated build a simulated split form with a continuous section instead of a datasheet.

What you can't do AFAIAA (at least not without a lot of code) is allow some fields to be hidden but not others