Access Date Time Picker
Date Time Picker. Calendar and Clock Forms.
This is a video walkthru of my new Microsoft Access Date and Time Picker Template. The purpose of this video is to show you all of the features in the template. You can purchase the template for your use at the link provided below. If enough of you want to see how this database was built, I would be happy to record a detailed lesson video, but for now it's available only as a template.
I do cover how I built the Calendar Control Template in my Access Calendar Seminar and the techniques are very similar. This database uses ONLY Microsoft Access to provide you with a popup calendar date picker form and a popup time picker form. I hate external objects (DLLs, COM objects, etc.) Microsoft removed the built-in calendar control in Access 2010, and they replaced it with a simple date picker popup in the control. Some people (including me) want more control over that date popup. So, a few years ago, I created my Calendar Control Replacement (see link below).
Watch the walk-thru video. You'll see all of the features included in this template. You can use this as a popup form, or embed it inside of your other forms. And of course, it's completely customizable and you get the full source code when you purchase the template.
Sample Database
If you'd like to download a sample copy of the database template, you can do so here. This is a non-editable version of the template which will let you see it work in action. Sample database only available for 64-bit version of Access.
Full Developer Database
Once you have purchased the full developer database template, come back to this page and click on the Download button below. This will give you access to the ZIP file containing the Template ACCDB file. The full version will run on 32-bit or 64-bit Access 2013 or higher.
Updates
Since the database was first published, I added one new feature. If you double-click on the year in the popup calendar form, it will ask you to input the year. I always hate having to click... ehem... 30 times to the left to select my birthdate year. OK, OK... 40 times. LOL
Full Video Seminar
If you would like to learn how this database was built, again, pick up a copy of my Access Calendar Seminar. It covers all of the basic concepts. If you want to see how this database, specifically, was built, then let me know. if enough people are interested, I'll record it as a separate lesson.
License
For internal use only. This template does NOT come with a royalty-free license. You may only customize the template for your business needs and for use within your organization at one location ONLY. You may not resell or distribute any form of this template to others without express written permission. Contact me for additional information on obtaining a license to distribute if you plan on including this template in a product you are reselling. Additional licenses are required if you plan on using this template with more than ten (10) employees or in multiple locations within your organization.
Not a Finished Product
Please keep in mind that most of my template databases are not designed to be finished products that are ready to go in a working environment. My templates are meant as starting points for you to customize for yourself so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. This requires that you have a basic understanding of Microsoft Access development. To work on most of my databases you should have completed my Access Beginner series and the first couple levels of my Expert series at a minimum. Most of my databases require knowledge of SQL and VBA as well. Keep in mind that most of my templates are not like off-the-shelf software. They're starting points for developers to be able to modify and use as their own. It really is going to be in your benefit to watch all of the prerequisite videos so you understand the database and how it works moving forward. This is not like QuickBooks where you just install it and use it. My templates are mostly designed for people who already have an understanding of how Microsoft Access works.
Customize For Your Needs
If you would like to discuss customizing this template for your needs, and integrating it into your current setup, please see my consulting page for details. While I no longer accept custom jobs that are specific to a single user, I may include your features in a future version of this template if they have mass appeal. If you are looking for custom enhancements made to this template just for you, visit my Developer Network.
Technical Support
Please note that technical support is NOT guaranteed for any of my courses, seminars, or templates. If you require help with modifying this template, you may post a question in the Forums, however an answer to your question is not guaranteed. If this template comes with an accompanying Seminar, then you should purchase that Seminar to see how the database was constructed. If not, then you should have taken the suggested courses. Most of my templates are designed on a Developer level and you should have a thorough understanding of SQL and VBA before attempting to modify them. If you have a problem with one of my databases, I will only support the unmodified database exactly as it's downloaded from my site. If you have modified it in any way, it may not be something I can help you with. You can post in the Forums, and I may be able to help you, but if the issue doesn't exist in my unmodified database, it's not something I can support.
Questions?
Got sales or customer service questions about this template? Feel free to contact me. If you have technical "how do I" questions about this template, you discover a bug, or want to suggest a new feature, then please post your comments below.
 Keywords
microsoft access, ms access, ms access tutorial, #msaccess, #microsoftaccess, #help, #howto, #tutorial, #learn, #lesson, #training, #database, #templates, calendar control, calendar popup, calendar template, date time picker, clock control
Intro In this video, we'll talk about a custom Date Time Picker database template for Microsoft Access that offers more options than the built-in date picker. I'll show you different ways to select dates and times, including a calendar pop-up, several digital pickers, and an interactive analog clock form. You'll see how to customize colors, time increments, and layout to fit your needs, and how to use both pop-up and embedded forms for date and time selection in your database.Transcript Welcome to another video brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor, Richard Rost.
In today's video, we're going to talk about a Date Time Picker database template that I just finished. As you're probably aware, Access has a default date picker. If you have any date field in your database and you click on it, this little guy pops up, and there's an option so you can turn this off if you want to. A lot of people find this guy kind of limiting. There really aren't a lot of options you can do with it aside from just picking a date.
Microsoft had a calendar control that you could actually embed in your forms in Microsoft Access, but they got rid of it in 2010 and then replaced it with the date picker I just showed you. I kind of liked this control, although I try to avoid using external controls. I like to keep everything possible in my Access database in the form of forms, reports, tables, queries, and so on. I don't like DLLs, I don't like common objects, and I don't like using external, especially third party, controls because if you distribute your database, it becomes a big pain.
So, I try to keep everything in my database if possible as a form. That's when I created this calendar pop-up a couple of years ago. It's just a form in Access, but it has a lot of the same functionality that Microsoft's control had with some extra benefits in it. I actually put together a whole seminar on how you can design forms and reports that display things in a monthly calendar type format, because that's one of the shortcomings of Microsoft Access. If you want to display anything in the form of an actual calendar, it's a lot of work. I've got a whole seminar on how to do this. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here; I'll put a link to the seminar in the description below the video.
The point of this video is the calendar pop-up. A lot of people emailed me and said, hey, that's great, but Microsoft Access doesn't have any way to pick times either. They wanted a nice, pretty way for their users to select a time value, like a punch clock if you're clocking in and out at work. That's what I just recently did. I recently built a new template. In this template, I built a couple of different ways that your users can pick times.
The one on the top is a simple hour and minute with AM/PM. Those are combo boxes. I'll drop down and show you how all this works in a minute. Then we've got a simple spinner set on the left side for 24-hour time. To the right, there are some list boxes. It works the same way, but instead of dropped down combo boxes, you can pick from a list box.
The coolest thing that I built is the analog clock. You can click on the hours and the minutes, and then the little clock face hands go around for you. This makes it nice and easy for your users to pick a time. You can have it pop up for them and they can click on it, or you can embed it inside your forms.
I added configurable options too. You can specify the colors for all the clock features: the hour, the hands, the AM/PM, all that stuff. In this video, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of everything that this template includes.
Here is the main menu. There are pop-up forms and embedded forms. The embedded forms go inside another form. Here's how the pop-up forms work.
Here's the date one. Here's the date field. Select the date. Here's the basic calendar form that I built years ago. It's still good, April 2020. You can move the year, you can move the month like this. This shows the current date. Today is April 21, 2020. Pick what date you want and notice how it instantly gets set back in this form over here.
This is not a control. This is not a plugin. This is an actual form, right over here in your forms collection. When you distribute this data, it goes with the database. You don't have to do any special or crazy stuff to get this to install. If you want to pick today's date, click "Today," close it, and there you go.
This shows you how to do the same thing with a double click. You double click here, pick a date, close it. The times are down here.
There's digital one, which looks like this. Just up and down. I went to the minute on this. If you want seconds, you can easily add seconds. I didn't bother including seconds; that's simply a matter of personal preference. You can take the template and edit it however you want. If enough of you want me to add seconds, I will.
From the people I've talked to, 99 percent are using this for things like time clocks or service calls. Seconds really don't matter. If you're doing something scientific or tracking race car times, then you might want seconds. For the majority of people, it's not a big deal.
Same thing here. Drop this down. For this, I went in increments of 15. This is just an option I chose because most people are using this for appointments, scheduling, or hours worked. Six thirty is fine. You can change this if you want to. This is an editable box. You can click on this and edit the list. It's that easy. You can turn this off in the preferences and the properties for the form if you don't want your end users changing this list. If you want to make this in increments of five or put in all values, that's fine too.
Digital three: same thing, but with open list boxes. You can change this if you want to - AM/PM, just like that.
Now, here's the coolest one, the analog clock. This one took me a while to build. One fifty-five. This goes in increments of five minutes. If you want to add more, you can. Again, in my logic, I figured this would be more than good enough for most people. Now it's about twelve thirty-eight, so it's going to go to the previous five-minute increment. If you want to set it to the next one, you can. It's a very easy setting to change.
I actually thought about putting a clock face behind this. You can if you want to. There's an option in the configuration settings. You can make these numbers transparent. Down here on the bottom, there we go. Our label for opaque, you can set the opaque to no, and now all these letters become transparent. You can still click on them. You have to guess where they are, but that's so you can drop in a picture, like a clock face. Just go online, find yourself a clock face picture, drop it on the form as a background, and your users can simply click right over these numbers.
You can move the labels around. If you go into design view, you can move the labels around. The faces are just lines that are redrawn, so everything in here is customizable.
If you want to change the colors, here's the AM/PM label for color on and off. This one's on. Now this one's on. That's the on and off color. If I make these blue, click here, which is a color value, now if the form detects the word "Color" in here, it makes this color button available. Click the color button, pick blue, and hit OK. Now they're blue. If that's too dark, that's a better off color, so make that the off color. Just copy this one, then paste. Now they're both blue, but now if you want the on color to be a lighter blue, choose another color.
This is how you can change the colors. There's the color, the foreground color default, the foreground color current, and the foreground color selected. The default color is just what the regular clock face looks like. This is for the hour. There's the minutes. The current color is set to gray; that's the current color. The selected color is this bright green. I'm going to put those green colors back because I like the way it looks better. Maybe we'll go with this up here. No, I don't like that. You see what I'm saying - you can play with these.
The opaque values - the hour label back opaque. You can make the background colors have a color instead of them being opaque or not. Set that to 1 or 0, and there are the background colors. If you want to put background colors here, you can. I like them transparent.
There's the hand width. There's the hour hand width and the minute hand width. If you want the hour hand to be a little bit thinner, maybe set it to 2. See, the line gets thinner. That's just the line style.
The hand style - there are different hand styles in here. These are straight out of Access; these are just the Access properties. If you want dots, pick 4. You'll get lines for a thick line. They'll normally show up as dots if you set this down to 2; they will look more like dots.
You can change the font name for the AM/PM letters. You can do this for all of them if you want, just go in the code and set it up. Once you get the template, you'll see how I did it. It's very simple to change.
Some of these properties deal with the digital clocks. One of the upgrades I might make to this in the future, if enough people want it, is to separate these settings for each individual clock form. Right now, you get the analog by default. But if you go to the digital list boxes, hit this little watch face button, and it pops up. Whatever you pick in this list here, these digital ones apply to all three digital forms. You can pop all of them up if you want. There's the spinner. I like working with the list box.
If you want to change the digital form background color, pick purple. There you go. Very easy to do. If enough people want it, I can split these off. In addition to the setting name, there's a form name that goes with each property. You can just see the list of properties. For now, it's just one big settings table. I didn't think that far ahead. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a popular template, so I didn't put too much work into it, but that's something you could certainly do.
There's one more feature that I put in here, and that's the hand info. These are basically coordinates for each one of these hands. The code draws a box and then sets the slant for the box, true or false, based on these coordinates. So, if you want to change the layout of this guy and move these around a little bit, you can.
For example, here are different hand configurations I came up with. You can move the buttons and labels wherever you want on the form, and then use that hand configuration tool to set where they go. The tool sets which label, like this is label 6, label 7, and so on. It picks the top, left, height, width, and the slant of the line, so you get something that looks like that.
Here's the embedded time form. This is simply the digital spinner embedded inside a form where you've got a start time and an end time. You pick your start time, click down here, and it defaults the end time to the start time. Then you can change it. That way, if you're picking your shift, what time does your shift start? Well, OK, I started at 3 PM. Come down here, it defaults to 3 PM. What time are you over? Just click up a couple of times. You can change it.
All the events are built right into this form, and this is just pulled in from the external form. If you want to embed the analog clock version, you can. It works the same way. The code is the same; you just change the form name.
Those are all the features that are included in the new Date Time Picker. It has the analog clock form, three different digital forms, the settings form, the hand picker form so you can set where the hands are on the clock, and I'm also including the calendar template pop-up form that I previously had for sale as well.
You can find them on my website. Here's a link to purchase: 599c.com/XDtimeP. That's what you see at the bottom there. It's a short link. I'll put a link to it in the description below the video so you can just click on it.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me. There's my email address: amacronutgmail.com.
Take care, and we'll see you next time.Quiz Q1. What is one limitation of the default Microsoft Access date picker?
A. It only allows basic date selection without many customization options
B. It allows users to pick both date and time
C. It supports embedding in forms with advanced color options
D. It provides analog clock functionality
Q2. Why does the instructor prefer not to use external or third-party controls in Access databases?
A. They improve performance but lack customization
B. They can be hard to distribute and may cause installation issues
C. They offer too many features
D. They require an internet connection
Q3. What key feature did Microsoft remove from Access in 2010 that the instructor discusses?
A. Analog clock control
B. Embedded calendar control
C. List box control
D. Digital spinner control
Q4. How is the calendar pop-up in the template different from external controls?
A. It is an Access form included directly within the database
B. It is a third-party ActiveX plugin
C. It requires special DLL installations
D. It only works in Excel
Q5. What new functionality did users request that led to the creation of the Date Time Picker template?
A. An option to pick time values
B. Multi-user support
C. Dropdown year selection
D. Monthly reports integration
Q6. What are some of the ways users can select time in the Date Time Picker template?
A. Combo boxes, spinners, list boxes, and an analog clock
B. Only using a simple text box
C. Clicking on a calendar day
D. Typing times manually with no interface
Q7. What is a unique feature of the analog clock in the template?
A. Users can click on hours and minutes and see the clock hands move
B. It only displays the current time, not allows selection
C. It is only available as a background image
D. Only administrators can use it
Q8. How customizable are the time picker forms in the template?
A. Users can change colors, increment values, opacity, fonts, and positions
B. No customization is allowed
C. Only the date can be changed
D. Only the font size is adjustable
Q9. What does the instructor say about including seconds in the time picker?
A. Most users do not need seconds, but it's easy to add them if needed
B. Seconds are required for most applications
C. Seconds cannot be added
D. Seconds are included by default and cannot be removed
Q10. How can you make the clock face labels transparent to add a background image?
A. Set the opaque property to 0
B. Delete all the label controls
C. Change the hand width to 0
D. Select the background color to black
Q11. What is the purpose of the hand settings (hand width, hand style, hand info) in the template?
A. To adjust how the clock hands look and are positioned
B. To enable/disable the date picker
C. To turn off AM/PM selection
D. To enforce user login
Q12. How does embedding the time picker in a form benefit the workflow for users, such as for time clocks?
A. The end time defaults to the selected start time and can be easily adjusted
B. Users must type each time manually
C. It only allows random time selection
D. It limits the range of selectable hours
Q13. What feature allows users to move the controls and customize the clock face layout?
A. The hand picker form and configuration tool
B. The VBA editor only
C. Third-party add-ins
D. The Access navigation menu
Q14. How are settings currently managed for all digital time picker forms in the template?
A. They share a single settings table
B. Each form has completely separate settings
C. Settings must be modified in external files
D. Only administrators can change settings
Q15. What is included in the Date Time Picker template according to the video?
A. Analog clock form, three digital forms, settings and hand picker forms, and a calendar pop-up form
B. Only a date picker control
C. Only report templates
D. Only a digital clock
Answers: 1-A; 2-B; 3-B; 4-A; 5-A; 6-A; 7-A; 8-A; 9-A; 10-A; 11-A; 12-A; 13-A; 14-A; 15-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.Summary Today's video from Access Learning Zone focuses on a new Date Time Picker database template I just finished creating. As many of you know, Microsoft Access includes a default date picker for date fields, but it offers limited functionality. The only real task you can perform is selecting a date, and you do not have much customization available. Several years ago, Microsoft provided a calendar control that you could embed directly into your forms, but they removed it in Access 2010 and replaced it with the date picker we see today. While I liked the calendar control, I prefer to avoid using external controls or third party objects like DLLs or OCXs, as they create headaches when distributing your database to others. My goal has always been to keep everything self-contained within Access itself, using only forms, reports, tables, and queries.
Some time ago, I developed a pop-up calendar form for Access. This calendar form reproduces much of the original functionality of the old calendar control with additional features. I even created an entire seminar on how to design monthly calendar views in Access, since that is an area where Access tends to fall short. Building a true calendar display is time-consuming, and if you are interested, I have a full seminar on this topic; you can find a link on my website.
The focus today, however, is on my new Date Time Picker template. Many people asked for an improved way to select times, since Access does not provide any built-in time selection dialog, especially one that users find attractive or easy to use. This template introduces several different interfaces for picking times.
First, I included an hour and minute picker with AM/PM flags using combo boxes. There is also a 24-hour time spinner, as well as list boxes that serve the same purpose, giving you a range of ways to select times according to your users' preferences.
One highlight of the new template is the configurable analog clock. With this feature, users simply click an hour or minute mark on the clock face, and the hands update visually. This can be a pop-up form, or you can embed it directly into your own forms. The appearance is highly customizable, too: you can set colors for the clock hands, AM/PM indicators, and other elements, so it integrates well with your application's design.
The template comes with a main menu organizing all these features. There are both pop-up and embedded forms. The pop-up date form displays a calendar for picking a date; you can navigate between months and years. Picking a date immediately updates the calling form. Because this calendar is just another Access form, you do not need to worry about plugins or special installations. When you distribute your database, the calendar and all related forms go along with it smoothly.
There is also support for picking dates with a double-click or selecting the current date with a single button. For time selection, several digital-style pickers are available. One of these uses up and down controls to set the time to the minute. If you prefer to include seconds, you can easily modify the template to add them, although most users need only hour and minute precision for time clocks or appointments.
Some time pickers use 15-minute increments by default, which you can adjust in the settings or by editing the list. If you do not want end users modifying this, you can turn off editing in the form's properties. The included formats (combos, list boxes, spinners) are versatile and can be changed to use other intervals or formats easily.
The analog clock is particularly flexible. By default, it selects the closest five-minute increment, but you can adjust this setting as well. There is an option to hide or show a background clock face image, making the labels transparent so you can use your own custom images behind the clock. All elements can be repositioned in design view, since the face, hands, and labels are all drawn dynamically.
You can fine-tune colors for various states: default, current, or selected values, as well as manage the appearance of the AM/PM indicators. Changing colors is as easy as updating the settings, which makes customizing the appearance for your needs straightforward.
Widths and styles of the clock hands are configurable, as is the font for the AM/PM indicators. Most properties affecting the analog and digital clocks can be adjusted by modifying the settings in the included form or in the code, and because full source code is provided, you will be able to see and alter the logic quickly.
An additional feature allows you to reposition the clock hands and button coordinates if you want to redesign the analog face or move labels around. The template includes a configuration tool for this so you can match the interface to your application's requirements. Examples are provided that show different layout possibilities for flexibility.
The template supports both pop-up and embedded time pickers. For instance, you can place the digital spinner directly inside a form to select shift start and end times, and the end time will default to match the start time for the user's convenience. Embedding the analog clock works just as easily by referencing a different form, since the same underlying code is used for all picker types.
Altogether, the package consists of the analog clock time picker, three digital time pickers, a settings form to control all appearance options, the hand configuration tool, and my previously released pop-up calendar. Everything is provided as native Access forms with source code, so you do not need to worry about third party controls or distribution issues.
If you want a better way for users to pick dates and times in your Access applications, you can find more information and download this template on my website at the link below. I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions.
You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Default Access date picker overview
Reviewing discontinued Microsoft calendar control in Access
Custom calendar pop-up form design in Access
Embedding calendar functionality in Access forms
Using pop-up and embedded calendar forms
Moving between months and years in calendar form
Selecting and returning a date to a form
Creating and using digital time picker forms
Configurable hour and minute selection with combo boxes
24-hour time entry with spinner control
Time selection with list boxes
Analog clock form for time selection
Interacting with analog clock face to set time
Setting time in increments and customizing increment values
Making form options user-editable or locked down
Changing and configuring clock colors
Adjusting foreground and background color properties
Customizing analog clock label opacity and transparency
Changing analog clock hand width and style
Setting font names for AM and PM designators
Applying color settings to digital and analog forms
Embedding time pickers in other Access forms
Linking start and end time selection with embedded forms
Customizing analog clock hand positions with configuration tool
Repositioning and labeling controls on the analog form
Overview of included template forms and settings
Using a configuration table for clock and picker settings |
