Graham,
Yes, certainly. That point is well taken. I didn't answer because I don't know. I didn't respond because I'm a bit of a space cadet lately--too much work. Sorry. I definitley didn't mean to just ignore that.
I've used bmps any time I've needed an image on a form. I've never used a background, though, just a cutsey logo on the main switchboard screen. BMPs definitely are memory hogs.
To the original poster, I'm not sure ifyou can alter the look of the forms with the wizards after they've been built. I may be wrong, so do keep looking. But there are some general guidelines on how to make forms more professional looking. The first one is to keep things simple. The next one (note: I'm making this all up, and there are some who would disagree with me on this stuff, too) is to try to emulate the standards you see in other windows software. I'm no fan of the monopoly MS has, but I do try to match the look of their software when I design database applications. Primarily, take a look at the dialog boxes in the Options menu of any MS app. They're all very similar, and, except for Outlook, they make a decent bit of sense. Certainly, when you look at one of those dialogs, you know what each visual clue is telling you.
There used to be a great website called the UI Hall of Shame, or something like that. It got taken down, which is a _real_ shame, because it was a great common-sense look at what's wrong with trying to reinvent UI design. It looks like someone's archived it at
Check that out. They do also have a hall of fame, and you should check that out. But first flip through some of the hall of shame, to get an idea of why independent, creative thinking is great, but can lead designers down some dangerous roads.
Other basic guidelines:
-Keep buttons in the same places on all of your forms.
-Use only one or _maybe_ two fonts in your entire application.
-Use only one or _maybe_ two colors other than gray in your entire application.
-Tab order is important. Make sure you get that right.
-Scrolling is bad. Don't require users to scroll.
-Scrolling horizontally is horrible. Don't even consider it.
-Remember the first rule: keep your design simple.
Jeremy
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Jeremy Wallace
AlphaBet City Dataworks
Access Databases for Non-Profit Organizations
Please post in the appropriate forum with a descriptive subject; code and SQL, if referenced; and expected results. See thread181-473997 for more pointers.
