Subforms in Design View (Acces2000)

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When I change from form view to design view on a form with a subform, the subform usually appears as a blank white rectangle like it does in Access 97. Unlike Access 97,however, 2000 doesn’t give me a way to see the design of the subform. Sometimes if I move back and forth between form view and design view I eventually see the design of the subform.
If I initially open the form from the database window in Design view I usually see the design of the subform.
Is this just a bug with the installation on my computer, or a known problem? Is there anything I can do about it.

I regularly use both 97 and 2000, and have both versions of Office installed into different directories. I wonder if this contributes to the situation.

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I don’t know of this as a known bug. I too have both Office97 and Office2000 installed on the same computer, and when I go into design mode (whether directly from database window or by hitting the design icon with form already open in form view), I see the subform displayed in design view.

Does this happen for you with all forms/subforms, or just one in particular?

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Thanks Mark

It happens most of the time, with most of my forms, in all my databases (I think). I haven’t been able to detect a pattern in the behaviour.

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By chance do you have the class module associated with the subform open? There seems to be something in that arrangement that will cause the white rectangle in some cases. But actually we see that very rarely on Office 2K-only PCs, and it’s nearly always because the subform is lurking somewhere in the background.

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It happens when even I have nothing open at all except the one form. I have just been doing some more tests. Close everything, unhide the the database window, open a form with a subform, go to design view…white rectangle.

It has happened ever since I first installed Access2k – for a long time I didn’t realise it wasn’t supposed to do that, and I couldn’t workout how you were supposed to get to the Design of subforms. Since then, I have reformatted the hard disk and done a clean install, then bought a new computer and done another clean install. But this behaviour has persisted. I think I will just have to get used to it, even though it is a nuisance.

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This does seem strange. Are you by chance working with a form where the subform is linked dynamically to improve performance? Also is this an MDB or an ADP database?

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Finally, do you see the same thing if you open the database window, click on a form name, and then click the design button on the database window toolbar, or right-click and choose the design option? It seems to me I’ve seen that behavior on occasion when I opened the form in display mode and then switched to design.

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Thanks
The files are all mdb files. There is nothing unusual about the linking.
If I open the form in Design view from the db window, I see the subform design. The problem only happens when I switch from Form view to Design view.
Asking this question has made me look more carefully for a pattern in the behaviour. One thing I now notice is that some forms do it 100% of the time, others less often.

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I have the same problem with A2k-SR1.

If I initially open a form in design view, then the subform is available in design view. Sometimes, after having opened a form in normal (form view) mode and then going to design view for the second time, the subform is available in design mode, but then again, sometime only the white rectangle is visible.

There is a really handy little free utility at Trigeminal Software called TSI Subforminator! that, once installed, allows you to right click the offending white rectangle and choose TSI Subforminator! to open the subform in design mode.

While I am at it, there is another utility that I have found useful from these same people – it allows you to invoke the expression builder whilst in a VBA module. Great when you had a memory lapse and you want the syntax of say the dlookup() function pasted into your code for you to complete. It is called TSI Xpression. Just install it and then right-click in the middle of your VBA code where you want to enter an expression.

HTH,

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Thanks Adrian

I will look both of them up.
I believe the Access xp makes the expression builder available in VBA code already. ( I don’t have it so I haven’t seen this in operation.)

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I have both 97 and 2000 installed on my machine and don’t see this behavior. The exception is if the subform is already open in either form view or design view when I open the parent form in design view. Then I see a white rectangle on the parent form.

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I use A2K SR-1 and encounter this behavior intermittently. I’ll open the form in Design view, and instead of seeing the actual subform, all I get is a white rectangle where it should be. If I close the main form and re-open it in Design view, I can usually see the subform. There’s no apparent pattern to this behavior. Strange. And to address Charlotte’s comment, the subform is always closed (i.e., not open in Design or Form views).

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This happens to me also but I don’t have 97 installed and haven’t figured out why.
Neville

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