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Creating your own menus, toolbars and pop-up
menus can considerably improve your
Microsoft® Access application's usability
and your user's overall impression of the
application. This article aims to guide you
through the process of getting started. Please
remember though: Never edit Access' existing
menus, toolbars and pop-up menus if you intend
to distribute your application. Always create
your own from scratch as described.
Create A New Menu Bar
To create your first menu bar select Tools -
Customize for the main menu.
Figure 1
The Customize dialog will now show. Click on
the "Toolbars" tab and then activate the "New"
button. Enter a name for your custom tool bar
and click on "OK".
Figure 2
Your new tool bar will appear just to the
right of the Customize dialog. As we intend to
create a menu bar, highlight the new tool bar
in the Customize dialog and activate the
"Properties" button. The Toolbar Properties
dialog will now show and we can now select
"Menu Bar" from the type list and close the
Toolbar Properties dialog.
Figure 3
Add Menus And Commands
Now we can begin to add our menus and commands
to the new menu bar. Let's start by adding a
File menu and an Exit command. First, click on
the "Commands" tab and scroll to the bottom of
the categories list until you see the "New
Menu" category. Highlight this category and
select the "New Menu" command in the commands
list to the right. Now drag and drop the new
menu onto the menu bar that we just created. We
want this new menu to be called "File" so right
click on the new menu and enter "&File" as
the new name.
Figure 4
To add the Exit command, all we have to do
is scroll to the top of the Categories list and
select the File category. Next select the Exit
command from the commands list (in this case
this is the very last command) and drag and
drop it below our new File menu.
Figure 5
Now we can continue to add the rest of the
menus and commands that we want our menu bar to
have.
Create Custom Commands
In addition to using the intrinsic commands
such as the exit command we can also create
custom ones. For example, say we wanted a
custom menu to open a specific form in our
application. All we have to do is scroll to the
top of the Categories list and select the File
category and then select the "custom" command.
Now drag and drop the custom command onto our
menu bar, right click on it and give it an
appropriate name.
Figure 6
To open our form we have two options. We can
either create a macro to open a specific form
or alternatively we can write a public function
in a general module.
Create A Macro
First close the customize dialog. Select
"Macros" from the objects list in the database
window. Click on the "New" command and the
macro window will open. Choose the "Open Form"
action and then select the form that you wish
to open in the action arguments. Finally close
the macro window and save the macro with an
appropriate name.
Figure 7
Create A Function
First close the customize dialog. Select
"Modules" from the objects list in the database
window. Click on the "New" command and the new
module will open ready for your VBA code.
Personally I prefer to write a generic function
to open forms with the form name passed as an
argument rather than writing separate functions
for each form. For the generic function see the
listing in figure 8.
Figure 8
Save the module with an appropriate name and
exit the VBA code editor.
Complete The Custom
Command
Now that we have created either a macro or
function to open our form all we have to do now
is attach it to our custom command that we
created earlier. Right click on our custom menu
and select "Customize" or select Tools -
Customize from the main menu. Next select the
custom command we created and right click on
it. Select the "Properties" option at the
bottom of the pop-up menu.
To execute our macro all we have to do is
select it from the "On Action" list.
Figure 9
To execute our function instead simply type
"=" followed by the function name into the "On
Action" argument.
Figure 10
Default Menu Bar
Once all the menus and commands necessary have
been added to the menu bar we can choose to
have the new menu bar to be the application's
default menu bar. Now is a good time to move
the menu bar to an appropriate position. As
this will be the default menu, move the menu
bar to the top of the application until it
snaps into place.
Figure 11
Next select Tools - Start-up from the main
menu.
Figure 12
And the start up properties dialog will
show. This allows us to change a number of
start-up properties for our application. The
one we're interested in is the Menu Bar
property. Select our newly created menu bar
from the list and click on "OK".
Figure 13
When we next open up the application our
custom menu bar will be displayed at the top
instead of the default MS Access one, giving
the application a more professional look.
Toolbars
Tool bars are created the same way. The only
difference is that you shouldn't change the
type to "Menu Bar" as we did previously. In
addition tool bars usually display an image
instead of text for each command. Use the "Edit
Button Image" and "Change Button Image" options
available by right clicking on the desired menu
command when the customize dialog is open to
set an appropriate image and check the "Default
Style" option. To hide the default MS Access
toolbars, you can uncheck the option "Allow
Built-in Toolbars" on the start-up dialog.
Figure 14
Pop-Up Menus
To create a pop-up menu change the toolbar's
type to "Popup". To edit the new pop-up menu
you have to check the "Shortcut Menus" option
in the customize dialog to bring it into view.
You custom pop-up menus are listed on the far
right of the shortcut menu bar. You can now
drag and drop commands onto the new pop-up menu
as required.
Figure 15
To use the pop-up menu throughout the
application simply select it from the "Shortcut
Menu Bar" list on the start-up dialog.
Alternatively you can attach it to a specific
form or control using the form/control
properties dialog. You can also do the same
with Menu Bars and Toolbars.
Figure 16
Further Notes
1. You can bypass the application's start-up
properties by holding down the SHIFT key when
you open the database. This will allow you to
edit the application further by bringing the
Microsoft Access default menus into view.
2. Custom menus and tool bars can be
exported and imported to a new database in the
same way that you can export tables, queries
and forms etc (providing the database is not an
MDE). Just activate the "Options" button at the
bottom of the Import/Export dialog and select
the "Menus and Toolbars" check box at the
bottom left.
Figure 17
3. You can assign icons to your menu
commands using the "Edit Button Image" and
"Change Button Image" options available by
right clicking on the desired menu command when
the customize dialog is open.
Conclusion
Having covered the basics of creating your own
custom menus, toolbars and pop-up menus, you
are now ready to start implementing them
throughout your own projects. Please take note
of the warning at the start of this article
"Never edit Access' existing menus, toolbars
and pop-up menus if you intend to distribute
your application. Always create your own from
scratch as described." If you do edit the
existing menus, toolbars and pop-up menus, then
the new layout will only be available on your
installation of Access, not on your end user's
copy.
Jamie Czernik BSc.
http://www.jamiessoftware.tk
(This article is provided "AS IS" with no
warranties or guarantees.)
Please feel free send your comments and
suggestions for improving this article for
future readers.
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Article - 161180
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