Sub Form Back Color...Transparent?

[Andy]

Hi, I inherited a database application that has a main form with two sub
forms. I added a picture to the main form but the subforms have a white Back
Color property of 16777215 shown in the subform's Detail section of the
property list. The Special Effect is Flat.

I can change it to whatever color I want except to transparent. I want the
picture on the main form to show through sub forms, or put another way, I
want the sub form controls to show on the main form as if they were part of
the main form.

The border style for the sub form is set to Transparent, the Special Effect
is Flat, the Border Width is Hairline, and the Border Color is 0 (which must
be black because that is the color box that is highlighted when I open the
color palette).

There are Navigation buttons on the sub forms. the Default View is Single
Form

 

[Andy]

BUMP...looking for a color code for transparent....

 

[John Nurick]

There ain't one. You do it by setting the BackStyle property to 0.

 

[Andy]

BackStyle Property? Where is that located? I set the Back Color property to
"0" and that changed it from white to black.

How about this idea? Is it possible to put a control on the main form that
opens up the sub form when the control is "clicked"? That would work when
the user wants to add a new work request but not when the user wants to view
an existing work request.

 

[John Nurick]

I misread the question. Controls have a BackStyle property for
transparency, but Access doesn't do transparent forms.

But your second thought is very simple to implement by manipulating the
Visible property of the subform control on the main form. Other
possibilities include:

-Use a pop-up form instead of the subform.

-If you have more than one subform, use a tab control. If you set the
tab control's BackStyle to 0 (Transparent) and have an empty page
visible by default, the picture on the underlying form will show
through. Put your subforms on other pages, and activate these pages as
required. (From VBA you do that by manipulating the tab control's Value
property.) If you don't like the tabs, try setting the control's Style
property to Buttons or None.