ACC2000: Overlapping List Box Controls Show Through One Another

When your form has two or more list box controls, one on top of the other, you can see portions of the control on the bottom when you click the one on top.

You can work around this behavior by setting the Visible property of the underlying list box control(s) to False when not in use. The following example uses a command button to toggle the Visible properties of two list box controls.

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Create a new form not based on any table or query in Design view. Be sure to add the list box controls in the order listed below so List2 is on top of List0:

      Form: frmListBox
      ------------------------
      Caption: Test List Boxes
   
      List Box:
         Name: List0
         RowSource: Employees
         ColumnCount: 2
         ColumnWidths: .25";1"
         Visible: Yes
         Left: 1"
         Top: .25"
         Width: 1.75"
         Height: 1.3"
      List Box:
         Name: List2
         RowSource: Customers
         ColumnCount: 2
         ColumnWidths: 0";1.25"
         Visible: No
         Left: 1"
         Top: .25"
         Width: 1.75"
         Height: 1.3"
      Command Button:
         Name: Command0
         Caption: Toggle Boxes
         OnClick: [Event Procedure]
   					

3. Set the OnClick property of the command button to the following event procedure:

   Private Sub Command0_Click
      'Toggle the Visible property of each list box
      List0.Visible = Not List0.Visible
      List2.Visible = Not List2.Visible
   End Sub
   					

4. Switch the form to Form view. A list of ID numbers and last names from the Employees table is displayed in the List0 list box.
5. Click the Toggle Boxes button. A list of company names from the Customers table is displayed in the List2 list box.

Note that as you toggle the list boxes and click items inside them, the items in the invisible list box do not appear.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

If you overlap two list boxes and toggle the Visible property of just one of them, you can see portions of the underlying list box control. This behavior does not occur in earlier versions of Microsoft Access.

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 in the "Resolution" section of this article.
2. Set the OnClick property of the command button to the following event procedure:

   Private Sub Command0_Click
      ' Toggle the Visible property of the top list box
      List2.Visible = Not List2.Visible
   End Sub
   					

3. Switch the form to Form view. You can select information from the Employees table in the List0 list box with no problems.
4. Click the Toggle Boxes button. Note that as you scroll up and down the List2 list box and click company names, you see portions of the List0 list box underneath. This is because the Visible property of the List0 list box is still set to True.