Add Progress Meters to Your Microsoft Access Forms

Progress Meters provide visual, graphical feedback about processes such as the duration of an event or the magnitude of a value. Your user can better estimate remaining time to complete an event, or the percent of a numeric value without having to translate numbers or time mentally.

Examples of Progress Meters on a Microsoft Access Form

Using the Progress Meter

Simply insert the Progress Meter on your Microsoft Access form or report, and adjust its size. Several options are available:

• Orientation: vertical or horizontal
• Direction of fill: left to right, top to bottom, etc.
• Style:
  • Windows XP (uses the system settings, by default green)
  • Windows 95 style
  • Solid
  • Segmented Visual Units (VU) similar to what's on sound systems
    • Segments can be flat, raised, or sunken
    • Different colors can be specified for each segment
    • Different percentages for where each segment starts
• Caption text to show a value or %
• Minimum and Maxium values
• Data binding support: optionally specify the field from the form

Value Property

The Value property sets the portion of the bar that is filled in. Set the Value property to a number between the Minimum and Maximum values, and the progress meter automatically displays the appropriate length.

Caption Property

The Caption property can be used to display any text. This is a good place to display the actual numeric value that is reflected in the display of the meter. The Progress Meter also recognizes the special case of using a percent sign (%) in the caption. The % is automatically replaced with the actual percentage value. For example, if the caption is set to “%”, the actual caption displays “55 %” (where 55 is the actual percentage value).

Programmatic Options

No programming is required to use this control; however, all properties can be set via VBA, and there are events for mouse clicks and key presses.