can the new record icon be changed from the asterisk to something else?

  • Thread starter kelly d via AccessMonster.com
  • Start date
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

on a continuous form with the record selctors on, can the record selector
icon be changed from the asterisk to something a little more application
specific like maybe the words 'new technician' on a continuous form where
technician info is entered. Or, turning the record selectors off, is there a
way to simulate thru code and objects, a record selector that I might be able
to customize to say 'new tech' or 'enter new tech here' etc.

Thanks
-Kelly D
 
B

Baz

kelly d via AccessMonster.com said:
on a continuous form with the record selctors on, can the record selector
icon be changed from the asterisk to something a little more application
specific like maybe the words 'new technician' on a continuous form where
technician info is entered. Or, turning the record selectors off, is there a
way to simulate thru code and objects, a record selector that I might be able
to customize to say 'new tech' or 'enter new tech here' etc.

Thanks
-Kelly D
Click to expand...

Use a command button. The command button wizard will create a "New Record"
button for you if you don't know how to write the code.
 
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

thanks for your reply.
I hear what your saying about the button but I dont actually need something
that brings me to a new record, I just set my continuous forms allow
additions property to yes and a new record appears at the bottom of my
continuous form.
what I'm looking for is a way of simulating the record selector (the little
grey box to the left of a record when record selectors is set to yes that has
an arrow on the selected record and an asterisk on a new record.)
because I dont want to see an asterisk in a little grey box on the new record,
instead, I want that asterisk to be something else like 'new technician' or
something. I dont actually need it to be a button. I just need it to be a
label that identifies a new record in a continuous form.

thanks
Kelly D
 
K

Ken Snell [MVP]

You cannot change the images on the built-in navigation buttons. Your
choices are to "hide" the built-in buttons and use your own button (as Baz
suggested), or to use your own custom buttons where you put your desired
text (as caption) or image (as picture) on the buttons.

Stephen Lebans (ACCESS MVP) has provided customized navigation buttons that
you probably can modify as desired:
http://www.lebans.com/recnavbuttons.htm
 
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

Thank you for your reply as well.
Actually, I dont need navigation buttons at all. All I need is a label that
says 'this is a new record. type new stuff here.' (not those exact words, but
you get the idea) and I only want that label to appear on a new record of a
continuous form but not all the other records. as far as I know, when you
change the properties of an object, all the instances of that object on all
the records in a continuous form change. so if i change the visible property
of this label to yes then that label is going to be visible on all records in
a continuous form and not just the new record.
so, i guess my question, simplified to its core, is does anybody know how to
make a label only visible in a new record of a continuous form, and not
visible on the other records.
cuz if I do somehthing like 'if record=AcNewRecord then label.visible=true'
is going to make that label become visible in all of the records of the
continuous form and not just the new record.
(I do realize the syntax of my psudo-code example there is probably all wrong,
cuz I also have no idea how to identify one record from another on a
continuous form aside from the on current event)
any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
Kelly D
 
K

Ken Snell [MVP]

One way to do this is to not let the new record entry occur on the first
form, but instead pop up a new form for entering the new data, then add
those data to the table(s) and then requery the first form. That avoids the
label issue.

Or you could write a "message" into a bound textbox for a new record, and
then the user would replace that message with the real value for the new
record.

Or you could use Conditional Formatting to change the color of controls
(text and/or back color) on a new record by testing the value of [NewRecord]
in the expression for the Conditional Formatting test.

Otherwise, you'll need to write a lot of code, use various "overlapping"
control tricks, etc. to try to do what you seek.

My personal feeling is that that is more work than it's worth.
 
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

Thanks Ken.
that was the answer I was shooting for.
It never even dawned on me to use a default value for a text box that'll
appear in a new record, and until now, I didnt even now that conditional
formatting could identify a new record.
Pretty clever stuff.
thanks for your help.

Kelly D.
 
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

In my pursuit to identify and somehow change the color of a new record on a
continuous form, through experimentation, I come across an astoundingly
simple way of making just one record in a continuous form change color. I
apologize if this is something everybody already knew but i've searched high
and low for a way to do it and the only examples i've found are, well,
considerably more difficult than this.
1) I put a hidden form on my parent form. lets call it placeholder
2) I choose a field in my continuous subform. lets call it SubField1
3) in my sub's on current event, I put 'parent.placeholder=SubField1' and I
also put 'SubField1.requery'
4) on my continuous subform, I have an unbound textbox in the background that
is the full size of my subforms detail section. (used for changing color)
5) in that unbound background textbox I give a conditional formatting of '(
expression is SubField1=parent.placeholder) makes the fill color different
like blue or something. whatever you want'

Thats it. those 5 steps and my continuous subform now changes to the color I
chose in the conditional formatting when I click on a record. Astoundingly
simple.

P.S. I downloaded Mr. Browne's sample DB for doing this to see how he did it.
brilliant work but borderline Ph.D. in it's design. I was shooting for simple.

P.P.S I did this in AC2003 so i apologize if it doesnt work in 2000 or 97.
 
K

kelly d via AccessMonster.com

Side Note:
thru the use of my above-mentioned technique, I was able to accomplish a
simulated custom record selector icon that I was after in my original post.
 
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