input fields stop being transparent...

[SoreGums]

how do i get the the fields to be transparent all the time?



I'm using the "put a txt box behind everything and use conditional formatting" to achieve the "highlight row" on continuous form method.

Each time I click a row, the row is highlighted - awesome.
then the field magically has a background colour even though it is set to be transparent - OK so i apply a conditional format (has focus, make bg color same as highlight) - awesome

PROBLEM: Now i click onto something else and BAM! gets a new background color even though it was set to transparent...
how do i solve this third instance of the input box having a background colour even though it is supposed to be transparent
thanks

[SoreGums]

this obviously works...
(removed the conditional formatting I created)

' BEGIN FIX HIGHLIGHT ROW ISSUES
Private Sub txtBoxNumber_GotFocus()
    txtBoxNumber.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
Private Sub txtBoxNumber_LostFocus()
    txtBoxNumber.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub


Private Sub txtStatus_GotFocus()
    txtStatus.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
Private Sub txtStatus_LostFocus()
    txtStatus.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub


Private Sub txtNotified_GotFocus()
    txtNotified.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
Private Sub txtNotified_LostFocus()
    txtNotified.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub


Private Sub txtRecieved_GotFocus()
    txtRecieved.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
Private Sub txtRecieved_LostFocus()
    txtRecieved.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub


Private Sub txtModified_GotFocus()
    txtModified.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
Private Sub txtModified_LostFocus()
    txtModified.BackColor = RGB(251, 140, 60)
End Sub
' END FIX HIGHLIGHT ROW ISSUES

of course there is an issue with this...
events fire out of order to achieve smoothness...
control.GotFocus() happens before Form.Current()
which means if I hold the mouse click on the other row, background color changes prematurely.

Hope someone knows how to force controls to be transparents somehow - instead of having to hack around this, thanks

[Missinglinq]

I'm guessing the reason 69 members have read your post but not responded is that, like myself, they cannot understand exactly what you're trying to do, here. But in answer to your question "how to force controls to be transparent," the simple fact is that when a Control has Focus, its Back Style will revert to Normal, and I know of no way to change this behavior.

Linq ;0)>

[SoreGums]

i had a feeling this was going to be the answer.

control has focus, back style set as normal

For clarity.

1. create a continuous form
2. want to click on a "row" and have that row highlighted
3. achieving 2 is possible with this solution
4. problem with 3 is that when a control has focus the back style is set to normal instead of keeping it's user defined value of transparent
5. to overcome 4 put code in the focus events (unfortunately setting the back style to transparent doesn't work, so need to specify the same colour as the row highlighter colour)
6. the side effect of doing 5 is that the control events fire before the form.current event, thus the control gets its bg colour before the highlight control gets its color from conditional formating

I guess I could mitigate 6 if i also apply the bg colour to the highlighter control instead of waiting for conditional formatting - will give that a go.
I could have simply skipped 4,5 & 6 if backstyle stayed defined - one of those "design choices" we encounter while working with other people's code i guess.

[amrut]

Is the form in question used as a sub-form ?
Are you using it to edit data or it is for display only ?

[SoreGums]

So I have a "Main" form which has two sub-forms, "List" (continuous form, highlight row, left) & "Item" (single record, show the thing highlighted, right)

I did have my "List" as not editable, however I needed a couple of working inputs and didn't want to create a third sub-form called "Search" that would control the "List".

To answer your question "List" is for display only - hence why I didn't want all the focus stuff.

[amrut]

Not sure if this will work-
Add a text box to the form, set its width to 0 and place it at the extreme left of the form (same left margin of the highlighter text box and this text box )and set its tab index to 0. Set the focus to this control in the exit and enter events of the sub form control on your main form.
One more option is to use a list box for displaying the data. You can easily highlight a row in it.

[SoreGums]

hmm, deferring all focus and tab stopping to the skinny control on the far left might work - will give that a go tomorrow - thanks for the suggestion!
(the only issue i forsee is no longer being able to select the text to copy it for some reason - not sure if that is really an issue though...)

listbox isn't going to work as it is too much of hack and loose a bunch of other things, clever idea though