I support Rob 100% in this. Making your own switchboard is just a
waste of good programming time. Take a look at the code behind a
wizard-created one to see what is involved - it's just not worth it.
Now if you think the Access one has shortcomings, I agree, but I have
also found that because it is not well explained in Help, many people
miss some of the really productive ways you can use it and get it to
dance for you.
To our company, it is one of the best wizarded tools in Access. Read
the following and see if, using this knowledge, that might also apply
to you.
------------ Switchboard Manager -------------------------------
SwitchBoards - People either love them or hate them. we love them
here and here's why. Don't dismiss them out of hand just because
they're unfamiliar ... take a little time, it's a new trick you might
like. If not, no problem.
Switchboard IS just a bunch of Forms with command buttons, except that
all the coding has already been done for you - and when you look
behind the form, you'll see just how much!
What the Switchboard Manager does is allow you to quickly and easily
add, delete or modify the buttons on your Form(s). It produces a user
interface that is intuitive to the user. It can be modified in 30
seconds if it's not intuitive. Lastly, it is difficult to mess it up.
The Switchboard Manager allows you to build an unlimited number of
related Menu Forms (some of ours go 7 levels deep). The interface is
clear and understandable and all the hard coding (and there is a LOT
of it) has been done for you.
The key to it is understanding the way the Switchboard Manager works
.. and I have to say, it takes a couple of hours to nut it out if you
haven't been there. We have, so I happily pass on what we found in
"about Switchboard". In addition, we have discovered an undocumented
feature that transforms the clarity of the menus for users, see
"Switchboard Menu Naming" below.
--------- about Switchboard ------------------
Switchboards will only take a maximum of 8 entries on each page. We
consider this too many options to present a user with and so we try to
limit the options on any one page to 4 or 5 for clarity of
understanding and use. This means that on each switchboard the
buttons are most likely to take you to another sub-switchboard. Some
of our systems go 7 deep like this in a logical progression.
As soon as you get the mental picture of how it all works, it becomes
incredibly useful and incredibly easy to develop with.
One of the keys to understanding how switchboard interface works is
realising that when you go into Switchboard Manager the first pane
that you see contains ALL the switchboard forms of your menu system.
They are listed alphabetically but show none of the relationships
about which one belongs to which other one.
From the opening pane in Switchboard Manager you have to do two
things
- create all of the new Switchboards you think you'll need right there
in the main pane of Switchboard Manager and THEN
- edit each Switchboard Form that your new switchboards are going to
be called from and add them as button items
Then there are a couple of design niceties that work well ...
- We have found that our designs work because the last button(s) on
every switchboard menu page is a "<- Back to {previous switchboard}".
So once switchboard is open you can go forward and back just clicking
buttons
- Make the Switchboard Form properties so that the form can't be
closed (Form->Design->Properties->Format->Close Button = No)
Switchboard gets some bad press in this group and I suspect that it's
mainly because some people have struggled to understand it - as did I.
But now we can make it dance to our tune, we would use nothing else.
------------ Switchboard Menu Naming -------------------------------
There is an undocumented trick with Menu Page Naming that suddenly
transforms the visual referencing of all Switchboard Menus
One of the frustrating things about the standard Switchboard Form is
that no matter what menu in the tree you are in, the Caption on every
single page reads the same, like "My Company Menu System". This is
just nuts when you happen to be in the "Employee Records" menu.
We've found a way around it where the title of the menu page you are
in is displayed at the top. All of a sudden, the system makes sense.
You only have to do this once after the Form has been created and then
it works on every existing menu page and every new one you create.
- Open the Switchboard Form in design view
- [Optional] Delete the big Label control at the top "[Label1]" and
its shadow "[Label2]"
- Replace it (or just add a new control) with a standard TextBox and
set the font's & colours you want
- make the ControlSource = ItemText
Done. This will insert the title of that page at the top of each
menu as you migrate through. The ItemText value is that which you see
in the first pane of the Switchboard Manager. It is the name you gave
that page when you created it. You can see and modify that name in
the Switchboard table.
--------------- (c) Brett Collings 2001 ------------
This is so simple, I just think that its something MS overlooked and
haven't been made aware of since.
Brett
Hi all!
I really want to create my own switchboard from scratch (not using
switchboard manager) and was wondering if anyone knew of a good place
to read up on how to do it, taking into considerations the
implications of adding a second switchboard and allowing the second
switchboard (e.g. reports switchboard) to inherit the layout of the
default etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Brett
