How to size form and keep control box

[mhh12]

These remarks refer to Access 2010 Professional and Windows XP, sp3.

It seems impossible to get a form to stay at a size I set.
I also seem to have lost the Control box with its Close Button and Max Min Buttons.

I am using two different kinds of forms- the split form and the single form.

One split form comes up in Form View at the correct size and with the control box with the Close,Max,Min buttons in the upper right hand corner. The close button closes the form; The max button makes the form cover the entire screen, not just the work area in Access. The Min button shrinks the form to just the contol box and puts the shrunken form in the lower left hand corner of the screen, not the work area of Access.When I want this form to be in design view with its properties showing, there is no way to do it. The design symbol at the left end of the ribbon is dimmed so it can't be used.
Guess what! I just right clicked in the one record at a time part of the split form and got the design view to appear. So I clicked on the close button of the form and it went off the screen as it should and when I opened it I have a one inch wide steip of the form showing. None of this sounds like I have any control of the form.

When other split forms open, they cover the entire work area and I can open the design view clicking at the left end of the ribbon on the design symbol and also on the single record portion of the split form and get the design view to appear.

I have no control of the size of the forms and no control of the control box and its objects.

Where can I find a complete explanation of how to size a form and get the control box on the form working properly. An explanation would include not only what properties and options have to be set but also the sequence in which they have to be set. Sequence is very important, I have found. That's why it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Things have to be clicked in the right order. There are subtleties in what options and properties interact. It is not a simple case of setting height and width. Neither number measures the actual form. Sometimes a dimension corresponds in the design view. But in the form view all bets are off.



Does anybody know where the entire answer is?
A lot of people would be happy if they could put an end to this fishing expedition on this very elementary aspect of Access forms.

[ajetrumpet]

this is a duplicate from the AWF forum.

this is a HUGE problem for many people. unless you find someone that's actually tested this stuff and written a list of what happens and WHEN it happens, you won't get an answer to this. More or less because no one knows for sure. And second because the experienced developers already knows what works and don't care about what doesn't.

I will write this FAQ on this board at some point, when I have the time to test what happens with the various form properties and in what order they happen. Come to think of it, I might write it tonight!

[mhh12]

If you can do it in one night, you are a better man than I am, Gungadin.


Next, the trick is to open the form on the screen, make it the size I want it to be, close the form and bring the form back on the screen at the size I made it. I have tried this from design view and form view and neither creates a form that keeps the size it was when I close it in form view.

Unbelievable that MSFT doesn't have explanations of how to do these simple, necessary things. But that is life in the big city.

By the way. Your comment about professionals leaves me wondering about them. If I were using their services and asked them to do something, their response could very easily be "no" because the solution is out of their body of expertise. Which makes me wonder about hiring professionals.

[ajetrumpet]

By the way. Your comment about professionals leaves me wondering about them. If I were using their services and asked them to do something, their response could very easily be "no" because the solution is out of their body of expertise. Which makes me wonder about hiring professionals.

are YOU a professional? Seriously...I'm asking. When you get to the professional level in anything, don't you think there's a point where you draw the line between making money and catering to a customer's every need? Even ridiculous requests? And pros make sacrifices. Have to. Right?

Why wouldn't you hire a professional to do tech work for you? I would if I wasn't one already.

not really sure what to make of your comment about professionals "saying no" to requests. I guess the answer would be that you don't hear "NO" very often from professional people because it doesn't promote confidence or forward thinking. If you want my honest opinion, if you asked me something like:

can you make my forms resize themselves for customer A only??

more than likely what I would say something like:

I could probably do that for you. If it's not really important right now though, I'll work on the more time-sensitive stuff first and we'll tackle that later.

and then hope that you forget about it in the long run because I know that it's not worth either your time or mine to make the change. If basically said "NO", well you'd probably think that I was either A) a jerk and not willing to cooperate, or B) incompetent and unprofessional because I didn't give you any information either way in my response to you.

There's a little insight for ya. Hope it was fun to read!