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corner40

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Custom Scroll Bars Drop Down List box Arrows

hi everyone
is there some way to create custom scroll bars in forms by either adding color or making them from scratch.  Also the drop down arrows on combo boxes are ugly too and I would like to make them look a little better...any suggestions
thanks
Jeremy
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naivad

You can always create a custom control in VB and use it in an access form. That would help with the dropdowns. I think Access uses system colors for scroll bars and such. I have never tried modifying them.

Maybe you could use windows API to createWindow() and have custom scroll bars, I will look into that.
Avatar of jadedata
Greetings corner40!

  Within the confines of VBA and MSAccess,  No.
  Surf/Google for custom controls that can be added to your application.  These will/may cost $.

regards
jack
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ASKER

Access uses system colors in some instances but not all.  Text/memo, and general background colors yes, but scroll bars can not have there colors changed in the system display.  Any other suggestions would be great.
thanks
JJ
corner40,

I've not played with this in a while, but it's worth a try.  Set a reference to MS-Active X Objects from within a module in your database (Open a Module and go to Tools - References and turn on the reference to Microsoft ActiveX x.x).

Then, try adding an Active X control to your form.  You should have quite a few options available.  Some of them are far more customizable than the standard ones available in Access.  This comes with a price however...  they're not quite as easy to use.

Hope it Helps,

Jim Christmas
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naivad

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I thought I had an epiphany,

I could create a custom scroll control that I could drop on a form with its scrollbars set to neither.
Unfortunately, I can't find the properties to change the top display of the access form. One way around this is to have large Jumps with the scroll bar and use page breaks so when the user "scrolls" it just jumps between pages and wont scroll smoothly. I will keep looking for the detail display properties, but I am not sure I will find anything.
corner40,

I'm with naivad on this one.  I thought my method would gain you something, but it looks like it doesn't get you much.  You could create three boxes on the right of the form, set their on-click events to move you around in the form, and have them resize as they move you.  Then for the drop downs, you could drop a graphic in front of the drop down and set it's on-click event to activate the drop down.

All in all, if you go down this road you're asking for a bunch of extra work.  My advice would be to let the form look ugly and move on, or rewrite your application in VB.

Sorry.

Jim Christmas
Screen.ActiveForm.CurrentSectionTop is the property you need to modify....but unfortunately...it is read-only!!
Thanks guys
I think your right though Jim, it is just a lot of extra work with very little, if any, gain.
Appreciated
Jeremy
Got it...

I did it with a web page control...


create a text file as an example and put this in it:
<html>
<style>
BODY                   { color: #000131;
                         font-family: "Century Gothic", tahoma, Arial;
                         font-size: 10px;
                         vertical-align:   middle;
                         margin-top:       0em;
                         padding:          0em;
                         margin: 0;
                         scrollbar-3d-light-color :    #002040;
                         scrollbar-arrow-color :       #DCDFE0;
                         scrollbar-base-color :        #DCDFE0;
                         scrollbar-dark-shadow-color : #4F4626;
                         scrollbar-face-color :        #4B4C7C;
                         scrollbar-highlight-color :   #DCDFE0;
                         scrollbar-shadow-color :      #DCDFE0;
                       }
</style>

<body>
test
</body>
</html>

that creates the web page with custom scroll bars.

then go to tools -> activeX controls from the main access window...
Click Register in the pop up window.

Navigate to your windows\system32 directory
and change the file type from *.ocx to *.dll

add SHDOCVW.DLL

now in form design view click on the toolboxs' elipses to display more controls. Select "Microsoft Web Browser" and draw this on your form

on the form_open event add the following line...

Me.ActiveXCtl8.Navigate "file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/newuser/Desktop/scroll.htm"


where ActiveXCtl8 is your web control and the path to the file points to the correct location. This should give you a nice window with a cool scroll bar that you can modify. Next you just have to change the source of the page to show the controls you want and use DHTML to get your data.

*whew*