Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 18:24:59 -0600 (CST)
From: Mark Jacobson <jacobson@CNS.UNI.EDU>
To: 810-022-01@uni.edu
Subject: imgCategory.PictureData (4 more letters)...

Hi 022 students,

    After 022 class this afternoon, I discovered while grading a student's 
Access 2000 project that there is another property that solves the

    imgDrama, imgAction, imgComedy and imgCategory problem completely.

    You do NOT have to have the imgDrama.bmp, imgAction.bmp or
    imgCategory.bmp files with the diskette that you turn in to me,
    or reset properties for the .Picture property of each if you move it.

    There is a .PictureData property that is stored with and inside the
    Access database.  Thus the need to not have huge, huge, huge 24 bit
    16 million color .bmp files and to use 8 bit or 4 bit or 1 bit
    (monochrome) color instead. 

    8 bit color is 256 colors on Paint Accessory.
    4 bit color is 16 color choice in Save As.
    1 bit color is Monochrome.

    24 bit color is 8 bits for Red, 
                    8 bits for Green,
                    8 bits for Blue...     FF997F is 
                                             red = FF = 255 = 11111111
                                           green = 99 = 153 = 10011001
                                            blue = 7F = 127 = 01111111

    If your Paint drawing is more than 2 inches wide by 2 inches tall,
       (the default is about 8 inches by 10 inches paper size canvas,
        and you save it in default 24 bit color (3 bytes for every single
        little pixel (picture element) or dot of the graphic, it will
        be huge and the Access database will NOT fit on a diskette).

    Here is the new code from a test I just ran on my practice
    data base:

    Just add the Data to the Picture to make it .PictureData
                                                        ---- in all 
Private Sub Form_Current()                                     statements.
    Combo9 = film

    If Category = "Action/Adventure" Then

  '                        ----                    ----
        imgCategory.PictureData = imgAction.PictureData
  '                        ----                    ----
                         
    ElseIf Category = "Comedy" Then

        imgCategory.PictureData = imgComedy.PictureData

    ElseIf Category = "Drama" Then

        imgCategory.PictureData = imgDrama.PictureData

    End If
           
End Sub
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I have saved 4 bit, 16 color versions of the Comedy.bmp, Action.bmp,
    and Drama.bmp which take up about 123 KB instead of 249 KB for 
    the 8 bit, 256 color versions that are still there.

    A HD 1.44 MB diskette holds 1440 KB (kilobytes).

    In Access 2000, 
    use the 
            Tools menu, 
            -          Database Utilities,
                       -                  Compact and Repair Database...
                                          -
                                                        command to 
                                                        reduce the size
                                                        of your Movies.mdb 
                                                        database, if
                                                        needed.
                                                        
   Alt, T, D, C is the keyboard shortcut, as shown above with underlines.
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Mark