Combo box and command button wizards don't work consistently in layout view of a form

Question

When working on a form in Layout view the Combo Box and Command Button wizards don't always work.  I do have the Use Control Wizards icon turned on.

If I create a brand new form, they usually will launch when I add a combo box or button.  But if I have saved the database and then open it again, and re-open the form in layout view, those wizards do not launch.  They will launch on the same form if I switch to Design view, but not in Layout view unless it is the first time in a form.  Is there a reason why those wizards are working that way?

I know that I can just use Design view, but I need to be able to explain to my users whether this is a consistent bug in Layout view.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Annette,

Thanks for the information.  I was able to reproduce your issue on my machine and have reported it to the proper people so that they are aware of it.  Unfortunately I can’t guarantee if or when the behavior will change, since that depends on several other factors.

The best workaround that I found was if you open any form in the database in design view, the control wizards then seem to work again for any form in layout view until the database is closed.  Then when you open the database again, you would need to once again open any form in design view to get the layout view to work for all the other forms.

Best Regards,

Nathan O.

Microsoft Online Community Support

Answer 2

Nathan,

I have used your workaround and it works except for when I get to the end of the wizard, I get an error message that says, "Microsoft Access can't add, rename, or delete the control(s) you requested." Then, when I hit OK to exit the error window and then cancel the wizard, Access crashes and restarts. I started having this problem in 2010, then I installed 2013 and the issue has continued into 2013. How do I fix this?

Thanks,

Kevin

Answer 3

Thanks so much Nathan!  I am glad it just wasn't me!

Answer 4

Hi Marshall,

My users are primarily people I am trying to teach how to do some work on forms and databases that they are building and learning to work with.

Thanks!

Annette

Answer 5

What are you doing that users are allowed to use layout view?  Layout view is an alternate to design view (primarily for web forms) and thus not something users should ever get into.  Making persistent changes to objects is something that should only be done by you, the developer, prior to distributing your program.  Users (or code you supplied that users can invoke by one means or another) should never be allowed, much less forced, to do anything that saves a design change to an object.