Pausing code to passing Value of User input

Question

I'm using Access 2010 and would like to have a user click a button in Form1 called "Save As" that initiates VBA code, and before the code is done running, have it pause, open up Form2 (where the user enters a "Save As" title, and clicks Save), and then have the code continue running in Form1 using the string entered in Form2 as a variable.

I'm just not sure how to "pause" my code in Form1 as it waits for the user to make an input. Any ideas on how to approach this?

HansUp · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-31 02:48:36Z

2

From Form1, open Form2 in dialog mode. Form1 code will wait on Form2.

Add a "done" button to Form2, and add a procedure to its click event which ~~reopens Form2 hidden~~ hides the form by setting its .Visible property to False. Making it hidden breaks it out of dialog mode. So after the user inputs her value, she can click "done", flow control will resume in Form1 and can read the input value from the control on the now-hidden Form2.

With this approach, Form2 need not know anything about Form1. So Form2 can be used to gather input for any arbitrary form ... or other code.

So assuming Form1 has a command button named cmdSaveAs, use something like this as its click event procedure.

Private Sub cmdSaveAs_Click()
    DoCmd.OpenForm "Form2", acNormal, WindowMode:=acDialog
    ' the next line is not executed while Form2 is modal (open in dialog mode);
    ' but after Form2 is hidden, we can read the value of the text
    ' box named txtInput
    MsgBox "User input was: " & Forms!Form2!txtInput
End Sub

edited Dec 31, 2013 at 2:48

answered Nov 16, 2012 at 18:12

HansUp

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4 Comments

Ryan Miller Over a year ago

Can you explain why I would want to reopen Form2 as "hidden"? Wouldn't reopening it cause the textbox value to be emptied? Also, at what point do think I need the code in Form1 to "read" the value in Form2?

HansUp Over a year ago

Reopening Form2 hidden breaks it out of dialog mode ... which then allows the Form1 code to proceed. The text box value does not get discarded unless you do something intentionally to get rid of it. Try a quick & dirty sample form to see how it behaves.

Daniel Over a year ago

You could get the same result by just setting Me.Visible = false from Form2... which seems a little less confusing. Is there any other benefit to re-opening the form instead?

HansUp Over a year ago

@DanielCook No benefit that I'm aware of. I tend to think of the 2 approaches as interchangeable, but I think your suggestion is better. Thanks.

Simon Kingston · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-16 18:08:59Z

1

You'll want to open Form2 using Docmd.OpenForm with the WindowMode parameter set to acDialog. This causes code on the calling form (Form1) to stop and wait for the called form (Form2) to close. On Form2, when you click the Save button, you could write the Save As title to a hidden textbox control on Form1 or set a property on Form1 to the value you want. Make sure you plan for what you want to happen if the user doesn't enter a value for the Save As title when you return to Form1.

answered Nov 16, 2012 at 18:08

Simon Kingston

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