Animated GIFs and pictures

[Darcey]

Can you insert an animated GIF into a form, so that each
form has either (a) the same animated GIF or (b) a
different animated GIF? I know you can make it so each
form has a different picture or clipart, (ie: so you can
bring up a different item in stock and see what it looks
like) but I can't find out how to get the animations to
work, if they work at all.

Second question: can you insert different pictures into
a form, so that by clicking on a button, the same
information shows up, but a different picture shows up,
maybe to show a different colour of the same product, for
example? So it would be the same article in the table,
but would show a different picture if you clicked on a
button in the form.

 

[Marshall Smith]

Can't help you with the animated GIF bit. My guess would be that it needs
an ActiveX control, rather than a more standard Image control.

For changing the picture, it's very do-able. Exactly how you manage it
depends on your situation. If you have a specific set number of pictures,
you can have multiple fields in the table (e.g. front view, top view, side
view, rear view). If you may have any number of different pictures (e.g.
different colors), I would recommend creating a child table to store the
picture locations and making the image a subform. The command buttons would
then change either which field in the record, or which record in the child
table, is being used as the source for the Image control.

Another option is to group all the pictures for a particular record in a
folder. Have your pointer field point to the folder, rather than to a
specific picture within it. Specify a particular file to be the default,
and specify each command button to change to a different particular file.
This cuts down on the number of fields that must be saved in Access. But,
it would be tricky to set up, and would require very rigorous naming
conventions. It would also be tricky to set up the code to create this
folder and the images when you add a new record to the system.

HTH,

Marshall Smith
Project Developers, Inc.