Control that Outlook and Access 2000 use...

Forgive me for repeating a question that I'm certain has been asked and answered many times before but...


What control is it that Microsoft is fond of using that sitcks to the left hand side of the screen and has different shortcuts? Most notably it's used in Outlook 2000 and MS Access 2000. Does anyone know if it's redistributable?

Thanks!

--Ben

If you're talking about the menu on the left hand side of the screen that has all the buttons that you click on, that's called a VerticalMenu control, and I have attached it to this message.

Hmm, didn't seem to post that time. Here it is

It's not an MS control huh?

How would I use that in an MS Access form?

Thanks again!

--Ben

I'm pretty sure Microsoft used their own version of this control, this is just something identical.

However, I'm not quite sure what you mean by using it inside an MS Access form. Is this a form inside a program that you created? If so, then you should be able to use it as you would any other control. If you can't use it, I've created a "poor man's" version of the exact same control, poor man being in reference to a way to replicate the control, but at the cost of some of the more "elite" features. Note that this is a rather tedious process; I recommend that you use the VerticalMenu control if possible.

If you don't mind the tediousness, here's what I did:

1. Create a frame with a BackColor property set to "&H8000000C&."

2. Use picture boxes to emulate the buttons. Use the line control and go around the borders of each picturebox, and set the BorderStyle to None on all of them.

3. Make yourself a bunch of gif images in Photoshop. Use them inside the Picture property of each picture box.

4. If you intend to use background images on your form (instead of the plain beige background), tell me, and I'll attach my TransparentFrame control that I made. Otherwise use the regular Frame control that comes with VB. This will hold all your controls, and will allow you to set each frame's Visible property to true, depending upon which button is clicked.

5. Input the following code where I say to put it.

VB Code:

'In each picturebox's Click event, put this code:
 
TransparentFrame1.Visible = True
TransparentFrame2.Visible = False
TransparentFrame3.Visible = False
TransparentFrame4.Visible = False
'Be sure to change the values of these properties according to which "button" is being clicked.
 
'In each picturebox's MouseDown event, put this code:
 
Picture1.BorderStyle = 1
Picture2.BorderStyle = 0
Picture3.BorderStyle = 0
Picture4.BorderStyle = 0
'Again, change the values of these properties according to which button is being clicked.
 
'Here's what I used in each picturebox's MouseMove event
 
Line1.Visible = True
Line2.Visible = True
Line3.Visible = True
Line4.Visible = True
'In my example Picture1 used 1-4, Picture2 used 5-8, Picture3 used 9-12, and Picture4 used 13-16.  Be sure to take this into account.

Well anyways, that about covers it. If I missed anything, let me know... that's quite a lot of work I did.