Change backcolor of a REPORT control based on its value

Mandy,

I had a very similar problem with Access reports a while ago, and never did find a way to make a control have different colours for different fields. In the end, I used a workaround (or cheat, if you prefer!)...

Instead of having one control to show the severity (e.g. txtSeverity), use a number of different controls (e.g. txtSeverity1, txtSeverity2, etc.). Set the forecolour of each of these controls to the required colour, leave the background as transparent and stack them up on top of each other. In the query behind the report, add one field for each control, along the following lines (assumes your field is called 'Severity' in a table called 'Incident').

SELECT
    [ID],
    [Other Fields],
    IIf([Severity] = 1, "1", "") AS [Severity1],
    IIf([Severity] = 2, "2", "") AS [Severity2],
    IIf([Severity] = 3, "3", "") AS [Severity3]
FROM tblIncident
WHERE whatever...

In the report, point txtSeverity1 at field 'Severity1', txtSeverity2 at field 'Severity2' and so on.

One more tip: it is probably worth-while setting up the report with the Severity controls next to each other until it is all working as you want it to, then move the controls to the same location. Otherwise, it is a pain to change the properties of the controls as you can never easily select the one you want!

The result may not be perfect (it hasn't changed the background colour as you requested) but it should be sufficient to highlight incidents of different severities.

Hope this has been helpful,

s46.

Mandy & S46,
    One thing that may work for you is to set the control's "Conditional Formatting" properties, if you right click on your control and you select "Conditiional" Formatting" it will let you format that control when the record matches your criteria.
    I used to use a similar method to you s46, til yesterday I found out about conditional formatting, and now plan to start making use of it more. The only problem with it that I have found is that it is limited to 3 conditions (well, in a way 4 in that you can set 3 and then one for if the control does not matche the three that you set).

Thanks for the suggestion but I've played around further and think I've cracked it anyway.

I've added this to the Format event in the detail section of the report

Private Sub Detail_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
getsev = Severity.Value
Select Case getsev
Case 10
colour = RGB(128, 0, 0)
Case 20
colour = RGB(255, 0, 0)
Case 30
colour = RGB(255, 116, 0)
End Select
Severity.BackColor = colour
End Sub

So far it appears to work - hope it helps with your situation and once again thanks for the post

M

Colonel32

Thanks - you post looks similar to what I figured in the end.

M

Will,

I can't see a conditional formatting option (I know is exists in excel) and I although I only showed 3 examples in my solution post I need more than that in real life.

M

Oops, quick edit from test environ delivers errors :p


Private Sub Detail_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
Dim lngColor As Long

    With Me.Flags
        Select Case .Value
            Case 1: lngColor = vbBlue
            Case 2: lngColor = vbRed
            Case Else: lngColor = vbWhite
        End Select
       
        .Properties("Backcolor") = lngColor
    End With
End Sub

Thanks for the nod! :)

Mandy,

glad you got your problem solved - %$£&** experts, doing things properly!!!

Cheers for the tip to you and the Colonel!

s46.

- before trying this make sure you set the background style to normal (as opposed to the default transparent) - that confused me for a bit!

M

Glad you got it working. Sometime the unconventional works best. 2 thumbs up for thinking outside the box!