ADT/ODE: How to Create a Custom Startup "Splash" Screen

MORE INFORMATION

A startup "splash" screen is used by programmers to display important information about a program during startup and to give the user something colorful to look at and read while waiting for the program to complete its initial processing, such as reading and setting up user-defined preferences.

A typical splash screen contains the following information:

• The program name and version number
• The registered user's name and company
• Copyright information
• The developer's company name and logo

This article contains two sample user-defined functions to implement splash functionality.

Creating a New Splash Module

To create the functions, follow these steps:

1. Create a new module, and type the following functions.
   
   NOTE: In the following code, an underscore (_) is used as a line- continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this code in Access Basic.

          '******************************************************************
          ' MODULE NAME: Splash
          ' DECLARATION SECTION
          '******************************************************************
          Option Explicit
   
          Dim gSplashStart     ' The time when the splash screen opened.
          Dim gSplashInterval  ' The minimum time to leave the splash screen
                               ' up.
          Dim gSplashForm      ' The name of the splash screen form.
   
          '******************************************************************
          ' FUNCTION: SplashStart()
          '
          ' PURPOSE: Used to invoke the splash screen form specified by the
          '    SplashForm argument.
          '
          ' ARGUMENTS:
          '    SplashForm     - The name of the form to use as the splash
          '                     screen.
          '    SplashInterval - The minimum time, in seconds, that the splash
          '                     screen must remain active on the screen.
          '
          '******************************************************************
          Function SplashStart (ByVal SplashForm As String, ByVal _
                 SplashInterval As Integer)
              ' Open the splash form.
              DoCmd.OpenForm SplashForm  ' In Microsoft Access 97 and 7.0.
              'DoCmd OpenForm SplashForm ' In versions 1.x and 2.0 only.
   
              ' Set the starting time.
              gSplashStart = Timer
   
              ' Record the global information.
              gSplashInterval = SplashInterval
              gSplashForm = SplashForm
          End Function
   
          '******************************************************************
          ' FUNCTION: SplashEnd()
          '
          ' PURPOSE: Used to close the splash screen form opened by the
          '    SplashStart() function. This function checks to ensure that
          '    the splash screen remains active until the user-specified
          '    interval has expired.
          '
          '******************************************************************
          Function SplashEnd ()
             Dim RetVal
   
             ' Loop until the splash screen has been active for
             ' the desired interval.
             Do Until Timer - gSplashStart > gSplashInterval
                ' Yield control so other applications can process.
                RetVal = DoEvents()
             Loop
   
             ' Close the splash screen.
             DoCmd.Close acForm, gSplashForm ' In Microsoft Access 97 and 7.0.
            'DoCmd Close A_FORM, gSplashForm ' In version 1.x and 2.0 only.
   
          End Function
   					

2. Save the new module as Splash.

Using the SplashStart() and SplashEnd() Functions

To use the SplashStart() and SplashEnd() functions, follow these steps:

1. Create a form not based on any table or query with the text and graphics you want to display on the splash screen. For more information, see the "Setting Form Properties" section later in this article.
2. In the Database window, click the Macros tab and then click New.
3. Create a macro with the following actions and save it as AutoExec:

          Macro Name   Action
          -----------------------------------------------------------------
          AutoExec     RunCode
                       <any startup macro actions required by your program>
                       RunCode
   
          AutoExec Actions
          ----------------------------------------------------------------
          RunCode
   
             Function Name: SplashStart("YourSplashFormNameHere", 5)
          <any startup macro actions required by your program .. optional>
          RunCode
             Function Name: SplashEnd()
   					

Setting Form Properties

For best results, the splash form should have its form properties set as follows:

   ScrollBars: Neither
   PopUp: Yes
   Modal: Yes
   RecordSelectors: No
				

Suppressing the Default Splash Screen

To prevent the default Microsoft Access splash screen from appearing in versions of Microsoft Access earlier than version 7.0, you can use the run-time version of Microsoft Access provided with the Microsoft Access Developer's Toolkit for version 2.0, or the Microsoft Access Distribution Kit (ADK) for version 1.1.