Ok so this maybe a simple/silly question but I don't know so here goes:

In access let's say I want to have a frame control, so I click the option group button and add it to the desgin surface. However, I am not wanting to use this as a option group with radio button selection, instead I would like to add text boxes instead the frame, so that when I reference the frame, it references every control instead of it, hence the text boxes, cbo boxes, etc.....just as it would if they were radio option selections.

So can you do this?

I want whatever controls I add inside the frame to be easily referenced (i.e. make all controls visible just by using frameExample.visible = true) so that I can build my own tab control groupings.....

can this be done?

Thanks!

EDIT:

What I am trying to accomplish is having a form that includes a collection of controls (input controls - cbo boxes, text boxes, etc), that serve as the Main record information. These are saved to a table via an INSERT statement on button_click because this form is unbound.

Next I have 8 categories that are relative per each main record (and data that goes along with it). Each of these categories could have a sub form area and a button click that bring it's relative form into the sub form area. These sub forms would be unbound as well as I would just save data via SQL statement. So i know I could accomplish this by running the insert statement from the parent form, on the main collection control's data that would create the KeyID number, then run a SQL statement that would turn around and load that KeyID number right back onto the page in a hidden text box.

Then when I click one of the sub forms and load its relative collection of controls, I could then save that data along with KeyID for each of these sub-forms/tables.

SO......

I was wondering if instead you could define these controls as a collection so that you could hide and make visible all the ones you need on button clicks and avoid the need for additional forms (subs). I know that if a user enters data into a text box, and then somewhere along the way that box becomes hidden, the data still exists in it and still ends up in the SQL statement....

So I want all these controls to exist on the same form, but I thought what is I could encapsulate them into a frame like an option group, then I could call the frame and all the relative controls would be called up (made visible) as needed.

Sorry for the long explanation but I thought it would help.