ACC2000: Controls "grouped" in design view: I want RID of this

  • Thread starter Thread starter sebt
  • Start date Start date
S

sebt

Hi

I've never seen this before, though most of my work has been with ACC
2.0 or 97. There's a hideous form I'm documenting, with controls
stacked all on top of each other.

Anyway, some controls seem to be stuck in "groups" - if you try to
select any of them, you don't select them themselves, but get the
control + other controls + a rectangular outline, all selected - the
Props box says "Multiple Selection". I can then click on each control
individually. This weird rectangle-thing doesn't seem to have any
identity of its own (i.e. it's not a Rectangle or Option Group) - if I
try to delete it, all the controls within it are deleted as well. It
also resizes all the controls within it - any dragging of handles on
the rectangle results in all controls resizing in the same direction.

I hate this. (particularly as the original designer has stacked up to
4 of these buggers one on top of the other). Just slowing me down. Is
there any way I can "ungroup" these controls? I wasn't aware that
Access allowed any kind of control grouping like this - and it doesn't
look like an Option Group.

cheers


Seb
 
sebt said:
Hi

I've never seen this before, though most of my work has been with ACC
2.0 or 97. There's a hideous form I'm documenting, with controls
stacked all on top of each other.

Anyway, some controls seem to be stuck in "groups" - if you try to
select any of them, you don't select them themselves, but get the
control + other controls + a rectangular outline, all selected - the
Props box says "Multiple Selection". I can then click on each control
individually. This weird rectangle-thing doesn't seem to have any
identity of its own (i.e. it's not a Rectangle or Option Group) - if I
try to delete it, all the controls within it are deleted as well. It
also resizes all the controls within it - any dragging of handles on
the rectangle results in all controls resizing in the same direction.

I hate this. (particularly as the original designer has stacked up to
4 of these buggers one on top of the other). Just slowing me down.
Is there any way I can "ungroup" these controls? I wasn't aware that
Access allowed any kind of control grouping like this - and it doesn't
look like an Option Group.
Click to expand...

Access forms have no structures like a "frame" in java (be really nice if they
did) so I can only think that they might be single page TabControls with the
TabStyle set to "None". This would not say "Multiple Selection" when selected,
but TabControls can be difficult to select if you don't hit just the right spot
with your mouse.

The original designer might have done this as a simplified way to hide/show
groups of controls because all they would have to do is change the visibility of
the TabControl instead of the individual controls.
 
Rick said:
Access forms have no structures like a "frame" in java (be really nice ifthey
did) so I can only think that they might be single page TabControls with the
TabStyle set to "None". This would not say "Multiple Selection" when selected,
but TabControls can be difficult to select if you don't hit just the right spot
with your mouse.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rick. That's what I always thought, that there were no frames,
unlike in VB (I don't know Java). I tried the TabControl - but as you
say these always say "Tab Control...[name]" in the Props box when you
select them.

These things are really ODD. Like the TabControl, an Option Group has
its own "identity" - i.e. you can select just it, rather than it and
the controls inside it, and amend its properties. Also, if you click
on a control inside an Option Group, whatever the current selection,
that control gets immediately selected.

In contrast, these weird "things" can't be selected on their own. You
can't click on a control within them to select it (you have to click on
it once - you get "Multiple Selection" with the "frame" selected - then
click on it again). Also, you can't CTRL+X cut controls from within
them and then paste them into the Detail area - they just bring the
bounding "thing" with them!

Option groups have a Controls collection, but I looped through all the
Controls on the form in a bit of scratch VBA looking for controls with
[control].Controls.Count>0, and found nothing.
The original designer might have done this as a simplified way to hide/show
groups of controls because all they would have to do is change the visibility of
the TabControl instead of the individual controls.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this... this form also contains a huge tab
control with 5 pages, all the controls on ONE page, and a
knickers-in-a-twist sprawl of VBA code to show/hide controls according
to their Tag when the user clicks on a different tab page! So anything
is possible in this system. There are some right strange people out
there...well, its £££ in a documentation specialist's pocket :)

cheers


Seb
 
In the last couple of versions of Access, there is a half-baked feature for
grouping controls.

Open the form in design view.
Select the control that behaves as part of a group.
(You will end up with all the affected controls selected.)
Choose Ungroup on the Format menu.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.


Rick said:
Access forms have no structures like a "frame" in java (be really nice if
they
did) so I can only think that they might be single page TabControls with
the
TabStyle set to "None". This would not say "Multiple Selection" when
selected,
but TabControls can be difficult to select if you don't hit just the right
spot
with your mouse.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rick. That's what I always thought, that there were no frames,
unlike in VB (I don't know Java). I tried the TabControl - but as you
say these always say "Tab Control...[name]" in the Props box when you
select them.

These things are really ODD. Like the TabControl, an Option Group has
its own "identity" - i.e. you can select just it, rather than it and
the controls inside it, and amend its properties. Also, if you click
on a control inside an Option Group, whatever the current selection,
that control gets immediately selected.

In contrast, these weird "things" can't be selected on their own. You
can't click on a control within them to select it (you have to click on
it once - you get "Multiple Selection" with the "frame" selected - then
click on it again). Also, you can't CTRL+X cut controls from within
them and then paste them into the Detail area - they just bring the
bounding "thing" with them!

Option groups have a Controls collection, but I looped through all the
Controls on the form in a bit of scratch VBA looking for controls with
[control].Controls.Count>0, and found nothing.
The original designer might have done this as a simplified way to
hide/show
groups of controls because all they would have to do is change the
visibility of
the TabControl instead of the individual controls.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this... this form also contains a huge tab
control with 5 pages, all the controls on ONE page, and a
knickers-in-a-twist sprawl of VBA code to show/hide controls according
to their Tag when the user clicks on a different tab page! So anything
is possible in this system. There are some right strange people out
there...well, its £££ in a documentation specialist's pocket :)

cheers


Seb
 
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