Controls flash as form repaints 1

[BoxHead]

I'm putting together a little game for my son to learn his letters. A bunch of command buttons cover a large textbox that holds a letter of the alphabet. As he clicks on the command buttons they become transparent and reveal a little more of the letter.

The idea is to get him to concentrate a little more on the shapes of the letters to help distinguish one from the other and rack up those valuable "computer game points" by figuring out the letter before uncovering the whole thing.

When you hit reset, the command buttons become solid and the letter in the textbox is changed at random. The problem is that when the textbox data changes, it flashes in front of the command buttons for a moment and you see the "hidden" letter.

I've tried putting other controls in front of it, but it always seems to flash.

Any ideas on the cause or a fix?

Thanks,


John

Use what you have,
Learn what you can,
Create what you need.

 

[HomeALone]

In your reset button, try to make the text invisible first , then do your other reset and make it visible again!

Me!TextBox.Visible = False

other reset codes. . .

Me!TextBox.Invisible = True

 

[BoxHead]

Thanks for the tip, HAL.

I tried the visible property but it didn't solve it. Based on that line of thought from you, I tried setting the fontcolor to the same color as the text box. I tried setting the textbox background to the same color as the fontcolor.

I even tried creating a second form, making it a popup to stay on top and having the reset sub open the form, repaint, and then after changes to the original form, close the popup form.

It's like the machine is determined to not keep the 'secret letter' a secret.

I think I'm going to try it like it is. The point, after all is to have my son learn his letters. If he can recognize them in the moment that the letter flashes - I guess the goal would be achieved.

This will become the "Flash Chance" part of the game for the BIG points!!! (Rule 472 of Database Design: If you can't fix it - feature it).

Thanks again.




John

Use what you have,
Learn what you can,
Create what you need.

 

[gol4]

John,
Just in case you are are not truely happy with the letter showing.One other thing to look at is echo. Set it to false as it is resetting then true once it is done. Echo will stop screen display