Alison Balteramp;#039;s Mastering Microsoft Office Access 1002003 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Setting Properties of an ActiveX Control at Design Time

The methods, events, and properties associated with each ActiveX control differ. They're specific to that control and are determined by the control's author, and they are used to manipulate the control's appearance and behavior. Each control's methods, events, and properties are in a separate .ocx file.

If you don't modify a control's properties, it functions with its default appearance and behavior. Much of the richness of third-party controls comes from the capability to customize the controls by changing their properties at both design time and runtime. Some controls support

data binding , which lets you store or display data in a control from an underlying field in a table. Furthermore, the capability to respond to an ActiveX control's events lets you respond to the user's interaction with the control, and being able to execute the control's methods lets you manipulate the control.

Figure 21.8 shows some of the Calendar control's many properties. As with any control, you can set most of its properties at design time and modify or read them at runtime.

Another way to set properties for a control is to do it graphically by selecting the Custom property from the object's Property sheet, and then clicking the Build button. For example, if you select the Custom property from the Calendar control's Property sheet and click the Build button, the control's Properties dialog box appears. The properties shown in this dialog box vary for each control.

Figure 21.9 shows the Properties dialog box for the Calendar control. Here, you can modify many of the calendar's attributes, including the first day of the week, whether you want the days of the week to show, and the colors and fonts.

TIP

You can access a control's Properties dialog box by double-clicking the ActiveX control in the Design view of a form.