Building Navigation Forms (Access 2010 and above)

[Charlotte]

Has anyone worked with these creatures in an Access Windows app rather than a web app? In the menu, they're created by selecting Create--.Forms-->Navigation and specifying the layout. They look appealing but it appears they used a tab control with a button format for the horizontal tabs. I've always had difficulties with tab controls formatted as buttons and those issues seem to have carried over into the Navigation Form controls. I'm working on a large project where this would be the ideal navigation tool since it is easy to bind subforms to it by setting a property and they automatically load just-in-time when the buttons are pressed without requiring any code in the navigation form. Since the project will have to be user maintainable once it's finished, this seems like the appropriate UI choice for the non-developers who will eventually maintain it.

Besides making it difficult to control the default colors of buttons (and to use the same colors horizontally and vertically), the horizontal navigation control creates navigation buttons that are noticeably narrower than the tab they are on by design. You might not notice if you pick buttons left to right, but reversing directions leave you with blocks of color between buttons that have been selected. I've seen similar behavior in tab controls using the button format but there seems to be no way to avoid it in the Navigation Control.

Any suggestions? Hans?? Anyone?

[HansV]

Hi Charlotte,

A Navigation Form is definitively an attractive UI - easy to create and maintain.

I don't have much experience with them, but I haven't experienced the problem that you mention - could you post a screenshot? Thanks!

[Charlotte]

Here's a screen shot showing the issue with the horizontal tabs. This is after I changed the colors to be consistent both ways.

[HansV]

Thanks, I see what you mean. I've never experienced that (I'm using Access 2010 SP2), and I can't reproduce it. A quick Google search didn't turn up anything either.
But I guess you'll have to live with it...

[BenCasey]

Charlotte,
I looked at these as well and thought they would be a good solution for what I wanted BUT then I experienced the same problems as yourself.
Shame really, but there was no way I was going to spend time de-bugging Access's own behaviour.

[Charlotte]

Thanks Hans. It may only be an issue with the Top and Left layout for all I know, but since that's the one I need it's definitely an issue. Actually, I'm seeing it in both 2010 and 2013, so I don't think the Service Pack has anything to do with it. If I weren't required to design this app so that it could be user-maintained (highly qualified and intelligent users with Access experience, but not Access developers), I'd use tabs. The Navigationcontrol definitely has some problems if you want to load the same subform from each tab (departmental tabs viewing subsets of the same data). That's going to require a different approach. The documentation on the darn thing is so skimpy that you just have to get in and rummage around in it to figure out workarounds.

[Wendell]

Is it possible that you have your display fonts set to 125% of normal? I understand that has been reported as a bug.

[Charlotte]

Wendell, will you marry me? That was exactly the problem. No wonder Hans never encountered it. His eyesight is much better than mine!

[Charlotte]

Now can anyone tell me if there's a way to set the default colors for the navigation form? It insists on defaulting to the current Windows theme, and that means I can't control the colors in the application to ensure they look uniform across machines.

[HansV]

Does it make a difference if you clear the check box "Use Windows-themed controls on forms" in File > Options > Current Database, and select RGB colors instead of theme colors?

S0420.png

[Charlotte]

Thanks, Hans. I had unchecked that value in options but I still got something unexpected. I also have a Normal form that sets defaults for other kinds of controls and new forms, but the Navigation Form ignores all that. I finally built some code to manage the colors, and calling it from the open event of the form overrides any weirdness that might have occurred. It's far easier doing that than struggling to set the colors from the property sheet. I hate having to use RGB values, but I'll just create some application constants that hold the several values I want to use once they're decided upon.

[Wendell]

Wendell, will you marry me? That was exactly the problem. No wonder Hans never encountered it. His eyesight is much better than mine!

I never use the thing either - we have our own navigation tools that can be nested fairly deep. But in this case, it helps have a contact in Redmond. Rumor has it that there may be a fix for 2013.

And unfortunately I am spoken for! But thanks for asking!