Form Masking of some sort?

G

GaryH

Wgat is going on when I see the following in Design View of an Access 97 form?

A portion of the form has a "white mask" over top of it, with several
layers. I can move the layers out of the way temporarily and see the form
busttons and such underneath. When the form is run, it is obvious these
layers pop up different dub forms. But is this the only way sub forms show
up. Each layer of the mask corresponds to a different sub form that is layed
over the form when a certain button is clicked, etc ???

But there are controls on the base form. How do I get to them with out
temporarily moving ehse "form masks" out of the way? - - -If that is what is
going on after all.

I will probably be a regular here for a while. I have crashed into the worls
of Access dataase maintenance. I am trying to bone-up on things, but my time
for now is limited to "learn by drowning in real world database" method.

Thanks
 
N

NthDegree via AccessMonster.com

Yes, it would be possible to have multiple layers and then programmatically
you could choose which one to display. What do you get when you right click
 
J

John W. Vinson

Wgat is going on when I see the following in Design View of an Access 97 form?

A portion of the form has a "white mask" over top of it, with several
layers. I can move the layers out of the way temporarily and see the form
busttons and such underneath. When the form is run, it is obvious these
layers pop up different dub forms. But is this the only way sub forms show
up. Each layer of the mask corresponds to a different sub form that is layed
over the form when a certain button is clicked, etc ???
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a "Tab Control" on the form. Try clicking the *edge* of
the white mask, or using the dropdown box list of controls in the upper left
of the screen; look for a control named tb<something>, thought the developer
could have used any name. In either case, you can view the control's
Properties.
But there are controls on the base form. How do I get to them with out
temporarily moving ehse "form masks" out of the way? - - -If that is what is
going on after all.
Click to expand...

You can use the dropdown box and select the control by name; or select some
control and use the said:
I will probably be a regular here for a while. I have crashed into the worls
of Access dataase maintenance. I am trying to bone-up on things, but my time
for now is limited to "learn by drowning in real world database" method.
Click to expand...

Ah yes... the "Deep End School of Swimming"... Good luck, and don't hesitate
to post back for more help.

John W. Vinson [MVP]
 
G

G-Man

Tahnks for the help gentlemen. Sorry it took so long to get back.

OK, So now I understand that the three "masks" that are stacked on top of
each other are three seperate forms. I can go into the list of forms and see
each of them and edit them there.

But I still don't understand something (and I'm usre it's very basic)

When I open the form, say frmMain, I see these three forms stacked up on
top of a portion of the main form. But there are controls under the stack.
The only way I see to modify these controls is to resize all three layers
stacked on top by dragging the edge of all three to expose the control I want
to modify, then drag the three stacked elements back in place.

How do get to that bottom layer to make edits without having to do all this.
Is this just a case of poorer design, where you wouldn't normally see
anything on the main form on this area where other forms were stacked over it
.. . . .and the bottom would be a 4th layer???

Hope I'm making sense
 
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