Combo box background turns from white to the form's background color

[mulchgirl]

I have my fields set up so that the background is white, but for some reason my combo boxes are white when the form is first opened, but as soon as you enter info into into them and tab away, the combox box turns the same color as the background color for my form. Any help is appreciated :)

[Stewart Ross]

Hi. The most likely cause is not that the colour is changing, but that the background style property of the combo is set to Transparent. In design view of your form select the combo. If the properties tabs are not showing double-click on the combo to bring up the properties. Select Back Style and set the property to Normal. If you then find that the background colour is not the same as your form, click somewhere on the form itself and from the form properties select the background colour value (stored in the Back Color property), copy it, and then select your combo again and paste the form's background colour value into the background colour property of the combo.

-Stewart

[mulchgirl]

Steward,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I checked what you suggested and I found that my Back Style was set to normal, and my Back Color was set to the code for white - just as all my other fields and combo boxes, which is what I would like them to be. They change to the background color when I enter my first keystroke into any of the fields on the form - I don't even have to enter info into those combo boxes. The thing is, it doesn't happen to all my combo boxes - I compared info in each of the tabs in the properties, and I could not come up with any differences besides where the info came from and sizing. I am stumped - any further insight is welcomed. Thank you.

[Stewart Ross]

Hi. OK, if the background colours are as you expect them to be is there any conditional formatting set? In design view select Format, Conditional Formatting, and check that the dialogue box says no format set (as per attached screenshot). If you see conditions of some kind, this is likely to be why your background is changing. Otherwise, all I can think of is that the background colour is being changed by VBA code through an event handler in the form - the After Update event of the combo or the On Current form event being the most likely.

I am out of explanations if none of these applies.

-Stewart

[Stewart Ross]

Hi. Further to my previous reply, if you check that there is no conditional formatting and you look instead at the possibility of event handlers, look also at the On Key Down / On Key Up events of the form itself as well as its On Current event - as you mention that the colour change happens on your first keystroke in any field.

-Stewart

... They change to the background color when I enter my first keystroke into any of the fields on the form - I don't even have to enter info into those combo boxes....

[mulchgirl]

Thanks for your help Stewart - I checked all that you mentioned, and it doesn't seem to be the problem. We only had this problem after we changed to the Office 2007 - it worked normally before - who knows.
Thanks again,
Tina

[Stewart Ross]

Sorry we couldn't resolve this one. As your form worked correctly before the upgrade to A2007 it suggests that this is a bug in the new version.

To misquote from Casablanca (the scene where Captain Renault is ordered to shut down Rick's Cafe on a pretence): "I am shocked, shocked I tell you to discover that there are bugs in this version." (OK, it was gambling in the original scene...with the punchline that Captain Renault was handed his winnings just as he ordered Rick's closed).

I still use Access 2003, and I will continue to do so for some time yet if simple things such as combo backgrounds change upon upgrade...

-Stewart

[mshmyob]

Found this.

Open the form in layout view and go all the way to the right under the auto format group of the format ribbon tab. Use the pull down to expand the options and select AutoFormat Wizard...there select the Access 2007 AutoFormat in the left column. This will reset your format settings so you will need to reapply your custom background color but it should fix the combobox issue.

cheers,

[mulchgirl]

Ya Hooooo! Thank you so much - formatting it for 2007 worked! Success is so satisfying.
Thanks again

[mshmyob]

No problem... glad we could help.

cheers,

Ya Hooooo! Thank you so much - formatting it for 2007 worked! Success is so satisfying.
Thanks again