Design-Time and Run-Time Property Persistance

Another, relatively common bug can appear after the control is inserted onto the form or report. Resize the control, then browse the form via View | FormView. Note the size of the control, then switch back to design view and note the size of the control again. Repeat these steps: resize the control, and switching back to browse view. The control may appear to look like it was not notified that the property has changed and that the control is dirty. To see an example of this, try this with the Microsoft Web Browser Control from IE 3.0 or IE 3.01. Verify that your control is persisting appropriate property changes in design correctly, and marking the control as dirty.

The bottom line is to ensure that the control persists properties that are modified at design-time and not those modified at run-time. This not only includes when the form is finally saved and the form and control information persisted out to a jet table, but also when switching between design and browse modes since there is a sort of persistence in memory of the cached changes occurring at that time as well.