Tab Control errors in Access 2003 forms

[Scott Doyle]

I have several database applications that I made for Access 97 and 2000/XP.
These applications use the Tab Control extensively on forms.

Viewing these now in Access 2003 causes the text and other elements to flash
excessively when moused over. Moving the mouse around on one all of the tab
pages makes everything blink and flash to the point that it is unusable.
Opening a form without the tab control does not do this.

I've searched the knowledge base and this forum but can't find anything that
mentions this.

Has anyone seen this? I hope so, and do you know how to fix it short of
dropping the tab control?

Thanks,

Scott Doyle

 

[Allen Browne]

Scott, I am not seeing this problem in A2003, so there must be something
different.

Suggestions to help pinpoint the source of this annoyance:

1. Uncheck the Name AutoCorrect boxes under Tools | Options | General. The
compact the database: Tools | Database Utilities | Compact.

2. Anything in the MouseMove event of the form, the form section, the tab
control, the pages, or any controls?

3. Is there anything in the Timer event of the form?

4. Are any of the controls using Conditional formatting?

5. Are there calculated controls on your form?

6. Are there potentially interferring or interdependent connections between
different subforms in the pages of your tab control (e.g. the RecordSource
of one refers to something on another, which refers to ...)?

 

[Scott Doyle]

Allen,

Thanks! I'll give these suggestions a try today. It's pretty frustrating
to think I'll have to totally remake these applications. I hope I can
figure out the problem.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Rochelle H]

Scott,

I've got the answer to this problem for you. I have experienced the
same problem with the tab control in Access 2003. After working with
Microsoft's Access support group, they have determined that this is a
bug. The problem occurs when you move the mouse over labels on the
tab control causing the text boxes on the control to flicker. The
current workaround is to convert the labels to text boxes, setting the
recordsource to the caption, locking it, setting the tab stop no, and
the backstyle to transparent. This is not much fun but it does solve
the problem.

Hope this helps.

Rochelle Huff

 

[Rochelle H]

Scott,

I've got another possible workaround from Microsoft. Go to the Tools,
Options, Forms/Reports option and make sure that the Use Windows
Themed Controls on Forms is unchecked. Mine was already unchecked so
this did not work for me. Let me know if it works for you. Microsoft
actually called me with this suggestion. Because it did not work for
me, they are still pursuing the "bug".

Rochelle

 

[Allen Browne]

Hi Rochelle

Thanks for posting this. I am able to see the problem when mousing over
*unattached* labels on the page of a tab control in A2003. Converting them
to text boxes works around the problem. Turning off Themed Controls does not
work for me.

 

[Scott Doyle]

Wow, thanks for posting this. I was beginning to think it was just me!

I have several PCs and the slower the system is the worse the problem
manifests itself. On my kick-but laptop it is barely noticeable but since I
know its there I can still see the flicker. Opening one of my Access
applications on my old P3-450 at work is almost unbearable!

I've turned off the Themed Controls on Forms and this does not fix the
problem.

What a pain in the a__ it will be to update my applications! I have people
all over the world using these and they are waiting for an update. I won't
be able to update the database until I fix this issue.

Thanks again,

Scott

 

[Allen Browne]

Scott, this may save you some time.

See:
Flicker with tab controls
at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-46.html

The article contains the code to search through all the forms in your
application, locate any unattached labels sitting on the page of a tab
control, and convert them into text boxes with the same look as your labels.

You can run the code for a specific form, and confirm before changes are
made. However, if you use the FixAllForms() function, please back up first!
This is fresh, untested code that makes wide-ranging changes without asking
for confirmation.

 

[Scott Doyle]

Allen,

Thanks a bunch! I'll apply your fix later today and let you know what
happens!

Scott

 

[Scott Doyle]

Allen,

That fixed it! And in one quick conversion!

Kind of a bass-ackwards way to do things but it will let me update the
applications.

One thing that your "wizard" did not fix that still causes a flicker is the
label on an "Option group". I had one on a tab and after applying your fix
it still flickered so I converted the label to a text box and used the
="label" for the data control. That worked.

Thanks again! I'm now off to update the others!

Scott

 

[Allen Browne]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the label attached to an option group can also
cause the labels of the option buttons in the group to flicker.

The code could probably be adjusted to handle that case also by changing one
line in Function ParentIsTabPage() to:
ParentIsTabPage = ((ctl.Parent.ControlType = acPage) Or _
(ctl.Parent.ControlType = acOptionGroup))

If the user had used a hotkey in the attached label of the option group,
changing it to a text box would destroy that functionality, so I'm not sure
I want to have the utility do that automatically.