Ugly form (A2000)

[D Willett]

I have a form which has 3 subforms, when this form loads, the subforms load before the main.
Although the time difference is only about 1 second, it looks quite ugly and slow.

I don't really want to alter the design too much as it is the heart and lungs of the whole database.

The form is loaded from a menu, perhaps a way to open it behind the menu invisibly.

I don't know, any suggestions.

Dave

[HansV]

I haven't tried this, but perhaps it helps if you keep the form hidden at first.

DoCmd.OpenForm FormName:="frmMyForm", WindowMode:=acHidden
Forms!frmMyForm.Visible = True

Regards,
Hans

[D Willett]

So close. It works and helps the main to appear quicker when it is called.
But
When opening the menu, the main form very briefly appears and then goes to hidden.

DoCmd.OpenForm FormName:="frmMyForm", WindowMode:=acHidden

I wonder if the form can be made invisible before it loads ???

Dave

[HansV]

Unfortunately, the Visible property of a form can't be set in Design view, only in a macro or VBA.

You *can* set the Visible property of subforms to False in Design view. I don't know what happens if you do that, and add

Forms!frmMyForm!sbfMySubForm.Visible = True

to the code (for each subform).

Putting Me.Visible = False in the OnOpen and/or OnLoad event of the form do nothing when you open the form from the database window. You might experiment to see if it helps in your situation, but I doubt it.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.

[D Willett]

I've done it.

Set all subs to visible=false then true when the main opens.

Now, the subs open exactly on time with the main.

Thanks once again Hans

Dave

[charlotte]

Actually, the subforms still open first, it's just that you aren't making them visible until the main form is finished opening.

Another way to handle it is to turn off the screen echo until the bottom of the Form_Open event and then turn it back on. If you use that, though, make sure your error handling is solid and that any error will immediately turn screen echo back on.

Still another alternative is to use unbound subform controls and bind them late in the Open event of the parent form by setting their SourceObject and LinkChildFields and LInkMasterFields properties immediately thereafter. They can't load first if there's nothing set up to load.