Introduction
Take a look at the two paintings below. The first is called The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali. I am a big Dali fan – when I first saw this painting as an undergraduate, I said wow!
The painting on the right is by Jackson Pollock. Pollock used a technique called dripping paint and, to me, his work looks like a jumbled mess. I have no appreciation whatsoever of his art and would not be unhappy to never encounter it again.
There are people who will pay millions of dollars for Pollock’s work and many who think that Dali’s paintings are the result of a very confused mind.
The difference in these two groups is a matter of taste. Certainly there could be significant debates by very learned people in the art world; however, at the end of the day, you like something or you don’t.
In this month’s
Wizard, I am going to show you how to make something I find very annoying in Microsoft Access go away: Alternate shading in list forms and reports.
The Annoyance
Take a look at the form below.
Every other line has shading. Some people like this, I do not. By default when I see this, I make it go away. If one of my customers said, “Jim, I want you to maintain the shading on these forms, because it makes it easier for us to read.” By all means, I would accommodate them because I realize that shading is a matter of taste.
The Solution
To make the alternate shading go away, open the form in design view, and right-click on the details bar, which is the gray bar below the header section of the form. The bar will turn black as you see below.
When you right-click, a dialog box will pop up. Choose properties and you will see the property sheet below.
On this sheet, look at the Back Color and the next line down, Alternate Back Color. It is the alternate back color that causes the shading. You can see that it is the same as the fore color, except 5% darker. To delete the shading, remove everything from the comma on, then save and close the form.
The result is this form, which to I find much easier on the eyes.
You can use that alternate back color to play around if you find the shading helpful. Perhaps you can find something as radical as a Jackson Pollock painting, which will amuse both you and your database users.
As in the Dali vs. Pollock world, it’s all a matter of taste. Find what you enjoy and make it look like that.
