How to relink icons to buttons - Microsoft Access Forum


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How to relink icons to buttons

Jose Melean

2 years ago

Hi Richard and all,

I linked the icons (images) that go in some of the buttons in our FE's forms instead of embedding them.

The images are in a group SharePoint folder syncing locally, the FE is installed in the user's HD, thus depending on the user's name the actual address will change for the local copy of the SP folder.

Looking up in the internet, the way to relink the icons is to write a script that goes over all the forms in the database, checks for all buttons and if there's an image, changes que link to the appropriate address.

My question is: is there a less cumbersome way to relink icons to forms' buttons?

I guess the second part of the question is which is better, linking the icons or embedding them into the buttons?

I prefer linking them because if we want to change one icon, we only have to copy the new file in the folder (with the same name) and it will bring it up to the buttons without need of changing each individual form.

Thanks

Kevin Yip @Reply

2 years ago

Embedding images is much preferred.  If an image is linked, and if the source file is moved or deleted, you will get a run-time error every time the image control is shown.  But an embedded image will not give an error even if the source image file has been moved or deleted.

The only reason to use link instead of embed is when you have a situation where the image content is changed but not its path.  For instance, you have a big and small version of MyImage.JPG, to be used for high and low resolution.  When you need to switch, you just copy the right "MyImage.JPG" to the image location.  Thus, neither the name nor the path of the image is changed, yet the user will see either a big or small image.  This scenario is where "link" will be useful.

Writing code to modify embed/link all images is an essential part of having a "dynamic" system to manage images, so you have to do it anyhow.  If you have 100 forms, you'll have to do it for all of them, no getting around that.  You can set up a global procedure to do all the work.  Each form will only need to run that procedure when it opens.  E.g.:

     Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
          SetupButtonImages
     End Sub

	Sami Shamma @Reply 2 years ago
Embedding images will bloat the data base and depending on size can cause problems aw well as space issues. it is on the Evil Access Stuff for a good reason.

	Kevin Yip @Reply 2 years ago
Button images tend to be small and won't cause too much bloating. If the image paths are moved often, using embedded images is good for avoiding untrappable run-time errors. An error caused by an invalid linked image path isn't caused by VBA code, so it can't be trapped (unless you use code to open the form, such as DoCmd.OpenForm).

	Alex Hedley @Reply 2 years ago
Optimize the images and just use the Access Updater if you ever need to roll out a new version.

	Sami Shamma @Reply 2 years ago
fair point

	Jose Melean OP @Reply 2 years ago
Thanks everyone for the comments.

	Sami Shamma @Reply 2 years ago
Access Updater is amazing

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