should i hide a form or make it modal

[Lord Kelvan]

Quick question looking for others opinions on the subject

I develop apps for a company and up until now I have been using modal
forms to keep the most resent form open on top I have recently learnt
how to hide the access window and keep the forms visible using popup
quite neat to be honest.

My reasoning behind this is staff here use many apps but when I
present them with an app that is built using ms access they think they
cannot use it as for some reason in their heads it is harder to click
a button using a ms access app than to click a button using a non ms
access app. (PS if you hadn’t caught on my staff are incompetent and
need to be shot several times in the back of the head.) So hiding the
ms access window and using the popup property allows me to trick them
in to believing it is just as easy i.e. I don’t tell them it is a ms
access app.

In doing this now that there is no container to hold all the forms
that open one another depending on their function and I am wondering
which would be a better practice in using Multiple.

1. Would the better practice be to show and hide forms as they open
and close? i.e. the switchboard opens another form then I hide the
switchboard and when that form closes I show the switchboard again.
2. Or would the better practice be not to hide any forms and just use
modal property as I have been doing up until now?

All opinions will be much appreciated into making a decision on best
practice.

Regards
Kelvan

 

[Jeff Boyce]

A "best practice" implies someone knows the "right" answer ... Then you're
stuck with having to figure out who is right?!

If what you're doing works, why change it?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Access MVP

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possible/necessary.

Quick question looking for others opinions on the subject

I develop apps for a company and up until now I have been using modal
forms to keep the most resent form open on top I have recently learnt
how to hide the access window and keep the forms visible using popup
quite neat to be honest.

My reasoning behind this is staff here use many apps but when I
present them with an app that is built using ms access they think they
cannot use it as for some reason in their heads it is harder to click
a button using a ms access app than to click a button using a non ms
access app. (PS if you hadn’t caught on my staff are incompetent and
need to be shot several times in the back of the head.) So hiding the
ms access window and using the popup property allows me to trick them
in to believing it is just as easy i.e. I don’t tell them it is a ms
access app.

In doing this now that there is no container to hold all the forms
that open one another depending on their function and I am wondering
which would be a better practice in using Multiple.

1. Would the better practice be to show and hide forms as they open
and close? i.e. the switchboard opens another form then I hide the
switchboard and when that form closes I show the switchboard again.
2. Or would the better practice be not to hide any forms and just use
modal property as I have been doing up until now?

All opinions will be much appreciated into making a decision on best
practice.

Regards
Kelvan

 

[Lord Kelvan]

i am thinking of changing it because it doesnt feel right (and i use
that term loosly) with the forms in modal and i am leaning towards
show and hiding forms and i am more wondering if that is an ok thing
to do from a programming point of view.

Regards
Kelvan

 

[Jeanette Cunningham]

Showing and hiding forms is a very common thing to do in programming.

One catch is that you can't show a form it if isn't already open and
hidden.
So I always include code that tests to see if the form is already loaded
before the line of code that makes that form visible.


Jeanette Cunningham MS Access MVP -- Melbourne Victoria Australia

 

[Lord Kelvan]

yeah i have realised that as with the popup functionality of my
application i have to hide the switchboard inorder to display the
reports and i have already the functionality to test if isloaded as i
need that to refresh my popup forms as onactivate does not work for
these types of forms

Regards
Kelvan