Form.PaintPalette property (Access)

Use the PaintPalette property to specify a palette to be used by a form. Read/write Variant.

Syntax

expression.PaintPalette

expression A variable that represents a Form object.

Remarks

You can set the PaintPalette property by using a macro or Visual Basic. The property setting must be a String data type containing the palette information.

You can set the PaintPalette property by assigning the value of the ObjectPalette property to the PaintPalette property in a macro or Visual Basic, by setting the PaletteSource property (in which case Microsoft Access automatically sets the PaintPalette property to this PaletteSource), or by setting the PaintPalette property of one form or report to the PaintPalette property of another form or report.

For a form, you can set the PaintPalette property in form Design view and Form view.

When you set the PaintPalette property, Microsoft Access makes a copy of the palette that you specify and saves it with the form or report. The palette is then available if you modify that form or report.

Changes to the palette that you specified when you set the PaintPalette property don't affect the copy of the palette stored with the form or report. If you want to update the copy of the palette stored with the form or report, you must rerun the code or macro that sets the PaintPalette property or reset the PaletteSource property when the form or report is open.

When you set the PaintPalette property for a form or report, Microsoft Access automatically updates its PaletteSource property. Conversely, when you set the PaletteSource property for a form or report, the PaintPalette property is also updated. For example, when you specify a custom palette with the PaintPalette property, the PaletteSource property setting is changed to (Custom). The PaintPalette property (which is available only in a macro or Visual Basic) is used to set the palette for the form or report. The PaletteSource property gives you a way to set the palette for the form or report in the property sheet by using an existing graphics file.

Use the ObjectPalette property to make the palette of an application associated with an OLE object, bitmap, or other graphic contained in a control on a form or report available to the PaintPalette property. For example, to make the palette used in Graph available when you are designing a form in Access, you set the form's PaintPalette property to the ObjectPalette value of an existing chart control.

Example

The ObjectPalette and PaintPalette properties are useful for programmatically altering the color palette in use by an open form at run time. A common use of these properties is to set the current form's PaintPalette property to the palette of a graphic displayed in a control that has the focus.

For example, you can have a form with an ocean picture, showing many shades of blue, and a sunset picture, showing many shades of red. Because Windows only allows one color palette active at a time, one picture will look much better than the other.

The following example uses a control's Enter event for setting the form's PaintPalette property to the control's ObjectPalette property so that the graphic that has the focus will have an optimal appearance.

Sub OceanPicture_Enter() 
 Me.PaintPalette = Me!OceanPicture.ObjectPalette 
End Sub 
 
Sub SunsetPicture_Enter() 
 Me.PaintPalette = Me!SunsetPicture.ObjectPalette 
End Sub

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