Combo Boxes - Fore and Back Colors Change To Black

[Bill6868]

Since changing over to Access 2007 I’m having a problem with the fore and back colors in my Combo Box drop-down lists changing. The fore color and back color both change to black. It happens on many events – after update, on lost focus, on got focus etc. The problem seems to be only with databases I’ve created in Access 2007. It does not seem to happen with databases I’ve created in Access 2000.

I’ve looked at the properties of the combo boxes and even though the back color is set to #FFFFFF (white) and the fore color is set to #000000 (black) it still happens. I’ve tried using VBA code to spell out these properties on various event procedures - going into the combo boxes, exiting the combo boxes, all to no avail.

80% of the time the combo boxes will do this. 20% of the time they will behave. There just seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

Observation: If I use the wizard to establish the drop-down choices I don’t seem to have this problem (at least I don’t think so). I prefer to use look-up tables for the drop-down choices. This is where I have problems.

It is so frustrating I have begun to put all my fields in the Form’s header rather than in the detail section. This fixes the problem, although I’m not sure what consequences I’ll experience by doing this, or why this fixes the problem. I’ve even looked at the Form’s detail section properties and don’t see anything unusual.

Could anyone shed some light on this? I’m about ready to use a hammer. I would be grateful for any suggestion(s).

 

[Andrzejek]

My first thing would be to check the refresh rate of my monitor - increase it a little and see if this would help. That's because you (hopefully) did not change fore/back color in the code, right?

Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[MajP]

It is a known bug. Ensure you have all updated service packs. It the SP do not fix it then;

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974995

Issues that this hotfix package fixes
After you install 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) on your computer, the following files are not updated to the SP 2 level:
Acerclr.dll
Acecnf.dll
Acecnlt.exe
Acerep.dll

You can delete an object in a security-enhanced Office Access 2007 database from Navigation Pane, even if you do not have the delete permission.

You have a form that contains a combo box in Office Access 2007. When the combo box loses the focus,the combo box is filled by using the background color of the form.
[/quote MS]

 

[Bill6868]

Everyone - thanks for your advice. It seems the Service Pack 2 may fix it. The challenge for me is that my work computer lives in a US Corps of Engineer environment, so I would have to have IT do the download because I don't have permissions. The next challenge is that I would have to download the fix to everyone's computer in the office, not to mention the three other offices in our division that are in three different cities.

I reguraly do MS Office updates on my home computer, and now that you mention it, I don't think I have the problem at home, but I'll take the databases home and test that theory.

As I mentioned before, if I move all the fields and Combo Boxes up into the Form's header and not even use the Form's detail section, this seems to fix the problem.

Is there anything inherently wrong with doing this?

Good grief! Office 95 was just fine with me.

Thanks Andrzejek and MajP.

 

[MajP]

You may want to see what else SP2 fixes. Everything listed in these KBs
939185 Description of the Access 2007 hotfix package: June 24, 2007
936519 Description of the Access 2007 hotfix package: April 27, 2007
935875 Description of the Access 2007 hotfix package: April 11, 2007
935521 Description of the Access 2007 hotfix package: April 8, 2007

Plus everything in the link. It is pretty substantial.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942378

 

[Bill6868]

Thanks for everyone's input. Our IT department installed SP1 and 2 when it was loaded on our computers. So I am still having the problem.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Bill6868]

Here's a solution: Place a rectangle around your combo boxes, make its fill the same color as the form, make the rectangle's line transparent and then set its position to "send to back".