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Control Tip Text By Richard Rost 
5 years ago
Control Tip Text and Status Bar Text Properties In this video I will show you how to use Control Tip Text in your Microsoft Access forms to show the user more information about a control (such as a button) as they hover over it. We'll also see how to use the Status Bar Text for controls like text boxes. Morgan from Dover, New Hampshire (a Platinum Member) asks: Is there any way that I can give my users a little more information about what certain buttons do before they click on them? I have a lot of buttons on one of my forms, so I have to make them small. The boss likes icons, not captions. Most of them are self-explanatory like "save" and "print" but the button to mark an order a shipped doesn't really lend itself well to an icon. What do you recommend? MembersMembers will learn how to use a different technique involving the OnMouseMove event to display a larger help label on a form with full rich text, colors, etc. We'll also see how to use this to change the screen pointer type.
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Keywordsmicrosoft access, ms access, ms access tutorial, #msaccess, #microsoftaccess, #help, #howto, #tutorial, #learn, #lesson, #training, #database, control tip text, controltiptext property, tool tip, tooltip, statusbar, statusbartext, status bar, picture on button, icon on button, on mouse move, onmousemove
IntroIn this video, I will show you how to use the Control Tip Text and Status Bar Text properties in Microsoft Access to provide helpful information to users about buttons and other controls on your forms. We'll talk about how these features can make your forms easier to use, especially when using icon-only buttons, and I'll demonstrate step-by-step how to add tooltips and helpful hints to buttons, text boxes, and labels so users know exactly what each control does.TranscriptWelcome to another TechHelp video brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor Richard Rost. In today's video, I am going to show you how to use the control tip and the status bar text properties to show help with the control in Microsoft Access.Today's question comes from Morgan in Dover, New Hampshire, one of my platinum members. Morgan says, Is there any way that I can give my users a little more information about what certain buttons do before they click on them? I have a lot of buttons on one of my forms, so I have to make them small. The boss likes icons, not captions. Most of them are self-explanatory, like save and print, but the button to mark an order shipped doesn't really lend itself well to an icon. What do you recommend? Well, Morgan, the first thing I would do is tell the boss to get over the icons. I like to use text captions myself on buttons, especially ones that an icon doesn't really suit or do justice. For example, everyone knows the floppy disk icon is save, and the printer button is print, but like you said, shipping an order - what kind of button is that? So in order to explain what buttons are, there is this nifty property called the control tip text. Let me show you how to use it. Here I am in my TechHelp free template. This is a free download off my website. If you want to grab yourself a copy, go right ahead. It's absolutely free. You'll find the link down below in the link section. Now, my buttons have nice descriptive captions on them, but let's say, for example, you have pictures on here and you do not have a text caption, so we will get rid of that. For those of you who do not know, you can put a picture on here. Just go to the format tab and down here it says picture. It's got none. Click on the little dot, dot, dot button right there and you can pick from Access's built-in little pictures. Or you can browse and use one of your own if you want to make your own little clip art for it. Let's say, for example, the customer list is, I don't know, let's do this thing. Okay, there's my customer list. Now, just looking at it, I might not know what that is. All right, how about customer form? Let's take this guy, put a picture on it. Let's see if we have something that looks like a person. How about the happy face? I do not use pictures myself that often, so I am just going to. I do not even know what they have in there. All right, but I have no clue what these things are, just looking at them. That's where control tip text comes in. Click on this guy - it's the customer list. Find the control tip text. It's on the other tab right down here. If you are having a hard time figuring out where a property is and you do not know which tab it's on, go to All and hit this button right there, the A to Z. That will sort the properties alphabetically. So now you have all the properties. You know you are looking for control tip text near the top and it's right there. Now the control tip text can be up to 255 characters of whatever you want to say when the user hovers their mouse over that button. So, "This is the customer list form." And this one is the customer - let's call it the single customer form. Well, now let's call it customer. Customers customer form. I do not want to go customer single form, as a list of single customers as opposed to married ones. Save that. Let's close it and open it back up. Now, when I hover over that, it takes a second, but there you see it pops up: customer form. Same thing for the customer list form. You can use that on any buttons you want anywhere in your database. You can also use it on text boxes - control tip text is there - or other things like labels. Usually you use it for buttons - things the user is going to click on. Now, there is another cool property you can use. Let's go to the customer form. There is another cool property you can use to give help text down here in the status bar. It's called the status bar text and that is handy for text boxes and other controls that you are going to tab to and you want to know what goes in there. So just go to design view again, go to first name. Again, on the other tab, you will find status bar text. "Enter the user's first name," and you do this for each one of these fields. "Enter the user's last name." If you want to build your database for people who do not really know what they're doing: "Enter the user's or the customer's email address." Again, these are pretty straightforward, but what if you have something like "customer sentence" - what does that mean? Or "is active" - what does that do? When the user goes to that form and is tabbing through, down here in the status bar, you can see there is helpful information. You can also put a control tip text in there too if you want to. So if you come in here, control tip text - just put the same thing if you want, and then if they hover over it, they'll get that control tip text. There it is. It pops up. I think those are annoying over text boxes though. But you can see down here in the status bar as I tab between these, it explains what those are. You can also do something like a little question mark over here. You could take a label like this, copy and paste, just put a question mark in here. Or you can use a little picture if you want to. I usually just use a label, put a question mark, and usually you will do this for things that are not self-explanatory. Maybe bold it and you can make it blue. Let's do white with a blue background and I will center it like that. A little circle would look better, but you get the point. So double-click on this guy, go to control tip text, and put in here, "customer's first name" or whatever. You are explaining a difficult to understand field. So if they do not understand what that is now, they just hover over it and there is the customer's first name that pops up. So that is control tip text and the status bar text. Pretty straightforward. How do you become a member? Click on the join button below the video. After you click the join button, you will see a list of all the different membership levels that are available, each with its own special perks. Silver members and up will get access to all of my extended cut TechHelp videos, one free beginner class each month, and more. Gold members get access to download all of the sample databases that I build in my TechHelp videos, plus my code vault where I keep tons of different functions that I use. You'll also get a higher priority if you decide to submit any TechHelp questions to me and you'll get one free expert class each month after you finish the beginner series. Platinum members get all the previous perks plus even higher priority for TechHelp questions, access to all of my full beginner courses for every subject, and one free developer class each month after you finish the expert classes. These are the full length courses found on my website, not just for Access. I also teach Word, Excel, Visual Basic, and lots more. You can now become a diamond sponsor and have your name or company name listed on a sponsors page that will be shown in each video as long as you are a sponsor. You'll get a shout out in the video and a link to your website or product in the text below the video and on my website. But do not worry, these free TechHelp videos are going to keep coming. As long as you keep watching them, I will keep making more and they will always be free. QuizQ1. What is the main purpose of the Control Tip Text property in Microsoft Access?A. To display a helpful popup message when a user hovers over a control B. To add a sound effect when a control is clicked C. To lock a control so it cannot be edited D. To change the color of a control Q2. Where can the Control Tip Text property be most effectively used? A. Only on text boxes B. On labels only C. On buttons, text boxes, and other controls D. Only in reports Q3. What is the maximum character limit for a Control Tip Text in Access? A. 10 characters B. 50 characters C. 255 characters D. Unlimited Q4. What is the role of the Status Bar Text property? A. To show information in a popup balloon near the mouse pointer B. To show descriptive information in the status bar when a control receives focus C. To change the caption of a form D. To play audio instructions Q5. Which situation is Status Bar Text particularly useful for? A. For locking forms B. For helping users understand data entry fields C. For importing data D. For exporting forms to PDF Q6. When might using Control Tip Text be less recommended? A. On text boxes, because popups can become annoying B. On navigation buttons C. On subforms D. On reports Q7. What is a recommended method for helping users understand fields that are not self-explanatory? A. Use a small question mark label with a control tip explaining the field B. Change all field backgrounds to red C. Hide confusing fields D. Remove the status bar Q8. Where can you find the Control Tip Text property when editing a control in Access? A. On the Data tab only B. On the Format or Other tab, or sorted alphabetically under All C. Only in VBA code D. In the main Access Options menu Q9. How can you customize a button in Access if you don't want to use default icons? A. Only use text captions, icons are required B. Browse and use your own picture for the button C. You cannot do this; only built-in icons can be used D. Use macros to change the picture Q10. What are some perks of being a Gold or Platinum member at AccessLearningZone.com? A. Free Access license B. Access to download sample databases and priority in TechHelp questions C. Microsoft technical support D. Direct database repair service Answers: 1-A; 2-C; 3-C; 4-B; 5-B; 6-A; 7-A; 8-B; 9-B; 10-B 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. SummaryToday's video from Access Learning Zone focuses on how you can use the control tip and status bar text properties in Microsoft Access to help your users better understand what each control does on your forms.Morgan from Dover asked if there is a way to provide more information to users about the function of certain buttons before they actually click on them. This is especially relevant when you have a crowded form with a lot of small buttons. Sometimes, using only icons without captions can make it difficult for users to know a button's purpose, especially for more unique actions, like marking an order as shipped. While icons like save and print are universally recognized, others are not always as straightforward. My first recommendation, honestly, is to consider using text captions for your buttons, especially when an icon alone is not clear. However, if your design requires the use of icons only, Access has a helpful property called control tip text. With control tip text, you can display a small pop-up message when users hover their mouse over a control, giving them more information about what the button does. In my demonstration, I used my free TechHelp template, which you can download from my website. If your buttons only have pictures and no captions, you might run into the exact problem Morgan described. You can add images to your buttons by selecting the format tab and choosing a picture from Access's built-in gallery or by browsing for your own image. Once your buttons are set with pictures and no text, the control tip text property comes in handy. You can find this property under the 'Other' tab in the property sheet, or simply by viewing all properties and sorting them alphabetically. The control tip text can be up to 255 characters long, so you have plenty of space to explain what the button does. For example, you could type something like "This is the customer list form" or "Open the customer form" depending on each button's function. After saving and reopening the form, you will see that hovering the mouse over the button displays the message you provided in the control tip text. This feature can be used on a variety of controls, although it's most commonly used on buttons that users will click. You can also apply it to text boxes, labels, and other controls if needed. Beyond control tip text, Access offers another property called status bar text. This property is especially useful for controls that users tab through, like text boxes for entering data. The status bar text displays your chosen message in the status bar at the bottom of the Access window whenever the control has focus. For instance, you might have "Enter the user's first name" for the first name field and "Enter the user's last name" for the last name field. This gives users additional guidance as they move through the form, especially for fields that may not be entirely clear. In situations where a field or control is confusing, you can also add a small visual cue, like a question mark label, next to it. Setting a control tip text on this label gives users a tooltip when they hover over the question mark, providing a brief explanation. Using both control tip text and status bar text can make your forms much more user-friendly, especially for new users or anyone unfamiliar with your database. If you are interested in learning more, becoming a member of my site gives you access to additional benefits. Silver members and above get all the extended cut TechHelp videos, a free beginner class each month, and other perks. Gold members can download sample databases and access my code vault with various useful functions, as well as receive higher priority for TechHelp questions and a free expert class each month after completing the beginner series. Platinum members get all those benefits plus even higher priority, access to all complete beginner courses for every subject, and one free developer class each month after finishing the expert sessions. I offer training in Word, Excel, Visual Basic, and more alongside Access. While there are sponsorship opportunities, you do not need to worry. Free TechHelp videos will always remain available as long as you keep watching. 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 ListUsing the Control Tip Text property for buttons in AccessAdding icons to buttons without text captions Selecting built-in or custom images for buttons Locating the Control Tip Text property in the property sheet Setting descriptive Control Tip Text for user guidance Configuring the Status Bar Text property for text boxes Providing field-specific help using the Status Bar Text Comparing use cases for Control Tip Text and Status Bar Text Creating a question mark label to indicate additional help Assigning Control Tip Text to custom help labels |
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| Keywords: TechHelp Access control tip text, controltiptext property, tool tip, tooltip, statusbar, statusbartext, status bar, picture on button, icon on button, on mouse move, onmousemove PermaLink Control Tip Text in Microsoft Access |
