Improving the appearance of a switchboard

Despite the number of different buttons and captions you will see as you test the switchboard there is really only one switchboard form in the database. The changes to its buttons and captions are managed by program code. All this happens automatically and it means that you can get a consistent style for your whole navigation structure by just modifying this one form.

Once you have set up your switchboards you can go to the Forms tab of the Database Window and edit the Switchboard form that you find there. Its default appearance appears to be plain turquoise but if you investigate then you will find that it is made up of a number of components:

A few minutes work leaves you with a form which looks a lot better.

All that I have done is to add a picture, remove Label2 and the VerticalShadowBox, change some colours and the styles of the OptionLabels and make the buttons a bit bigger.

The only unusual feature here is the icon on the Exit button. It's only possible because the main switchboard is the only form that has five buttons on it. I added the exit icon to the fifth button of the eight on the Switchboard form knowing that it would only ever be visible on this one form.

Switchboards are not perfect as a user interface but they work and they can be set up very quickly. If you are writing something that will only be used by yourself or by a few people in your department then switchboards are very effective.

Part 1 Getting started
Part 2 Building the structure
Part 4 Behind the scenes