Icon Menus Add Graphical Menu Bars to Microsoft Access Forms

Rather than basic text menus or buttons, Icon Menus let you combine graphics with text for menu selections on your Microsoft Access forms.

This display was popularized by Microsoft Outlook and lets you visually identify selections with a picture.

Find or create your own graphic files and give your users a more intuitive experience in your applications.

The picture can be any common graphic format such as bitmap (*.bmp), JPG, or icon (*.ico).

Display Options

Orientation

The Icon Menu has a property to let you easily specify whether you want the graphics displayed horizontally, flowed, or vertically:

Icon Size

You can even switch to small icon mode by setting a property:

Customizing Menu Items

The Icon Menu lets you specify the background color of the menu, along with the details of each item:

• Icon graphic file
  Note: once you specify the file, it's stored in the control so you don't need to worry about shipping it with your database to your users.
• Text to display
• Font including point size, style, and color

Using the Icon Menu Control

Once you've placed and customized the Icon Menu on your form, you're ready to handle the user's selection. The Icon Menu control generates an OnSelect event when the user selects an item. Simply respond to the user's choice.

Programmatic Options

Any icon menu property including the graphic pictures can be modified via VBA. You can also respond to OnHighlight and OnUnHighlight events when a user moves on or off an item on your MS Access form.