Close userform using myForm.Hide or Unload Me - vba

Before I start let me give you the background. I am working on a VBA project with Excel and the computer I am using has limited resources (and I have been asked to do as light as possible for fast execution time).
In my project I open multiple userform at different times, to apply filters on my sheet for example.
As I just said resources are limited and I want to know if frmFilters.Hide is enough to close the userform or if there is a better way to do so ?
I've read about Unload Me but I'm not sure how it's working because I'll apply filters from my form and I need to keep them once the form is closed until the user totally close the Excel file.
Is there a situation where Unload Me is better than frmFilters.Hide ?
Regards,
Teasel

I found an interesting answer to my question I thought it would be useful to post it here.
Unload me
Unload me
Removes the form from the memory and stop the application if you do so on the main form of your project. Every modification that you did in your form will be lost.
Hide
myForm.Hide
Only hide the form. If you do so on the main form of your application, this will not end the program (the debug mode would still be running for example). Every modification that you do in your form will be kept for the next time you show your form.
Which one to use?
Depends of the situation I believe. In my project, my form was made to be open/close multiple times so I chose to only hide it to avoid having to allow memory for my form every time.

Related

Forms not saving

Firstly, I apologise for my terminology and sometimes stupidity, as I am completely self/internet (mostly on here) taught. I've been developing an app for the past few years, mostly to help me with work, and more for kicks and giggles. I have now run into a problem that has me stumped! So I am calling out for any suggestions please :)
Okay, some background, I use colours on all forms to identify blocks of data based on an ID - it looks pretty, okay; and sometimes it's a quick identifier of which block the data belongs to when skimming through tables. So I have a form where I or the user can change these colours to whatever suits their eyes, needs etc. and there is a table that holds this information. Now these colours are applied using the 'Conditional Formatting' (when ID = 1 then background this colour, font that colour, etc). When a Form is opened in the FormLoad() code there is a check to see if the colours have been changed and if so then a module is called which updates all the 'Conditional Formats' on the Form (I should add here that it's only applied to the tables on the form), and everything looks pretty and more important works! Now this process is relatively slow (a couple of seconds on some forms), too slow to run every time the form is opened. So ages ago I found a way to force Access to save the design, including the 'Conditional Formatting':
DoCmd.RunCommand (acCmdDesignView)
Forms!PrePlanner!BtnHelp.Caption = "Help"
DoCmd.Save acForm, "PrePlanner"
DoCmd.Close acForm, "PrePlanner", acSaveYes
This works perfectly on some forms but not on other!!
At first I thought it was something to do with the subForms, as it WASN'T working on all the forms that have subForms and the ones it was working on had no subForms... So I copied one of a simple subForms (a recently created form) which can open as a normal form, made changes to the colours opened the TEST form, the colours updated as expected, closed the form with the above code and the Formatting WASN'T saved! :( (If I change the Help Button to say "Help!" this change IS saved)
The Forms that don't save with the above code are also the most recent Forms that I have designed, the ones that do save are older forms (a couple years old and designed on a different computer but the same version of Access). I copied one of these older Forms, changed the colours, etc etc and this it DID save!!!
I've been through and compared all the properties of a working form and a nonworking form and nothing, I've tried exporting and importing... Please any thoughts would really help my sanity!!
Thanks in advance
....I forgot to say that I'm using Access 2016 on a 64bit Windows 10 machine.
Additional Info.
Having played around this morning, I created a new form (from scratch) configured the records so that the Conditional Formatting can be applied, etc. Opened the new form the Conditional Formatting was updated, the form closed and saved. Upon reopening the new form everything was as it should be the Conditional Formatting was saved. So I then add a subForm, and tried again, the Conditional Formatting was updated, the from closed BUT this time without saving the Conditional Formatting!! I then removed the subForm and repeated the test, this time the Conditional Formatting was saved.
So it seems to be something to do with subForms, what changes to the form properties does adding a subForm trigger that would stop the Conditional Formatting from being saved? Is this a quirk in Access?
Thanks again.
Have you tried running your code to apply the formatting while the form is in design view? It seems like conditional formatting and properties don't save when updated via VBA while the form is in normal view mode. I've had good luck reopening the form in design, running the code, and then saving the form.

Hide modeless form when all macros stop

First of all I want to thank everyone who has helped me with answers here. You guys have been important in my development and for that you have my respect.
For the question: I want to create a form that displays the status for running multiple macros in sequence. For that i'm showing a form modelees so the macros continue running in the background.
The way I have it setup now, the form remains visible after macros are done.
Is there a way i can trigger the form to hide/unload when no macro is running?
Thanks,
Daniel
Just unload the form at the end of the last macro. I assume you have one calling sub which handles showing the form and calling the macros, so that is where I would also hide the progress form.

Using Excel while macros are running

There are a half-dozen answers to this. "Open a second instance" "Have a pause" Etc. I'm not looking for that.
I'm looking for the user of the workbook to be able to manipulate the workbook while the macro is running. I've seen this working before, where the user could scroll around, change tabs, even add and remove data, all while the macro was running. Unfortunately, I couldn't get permission to look at the code (And committing CFAA violations ins't my cup of tea), so I have no idea how they did it.
How can you enable a user to edit the workbook as macros are running? For a specific example, I have Conway's Game of Life running. Users select cells to flip live/dead, then can run a macro to run the entire thing. I think it'd be nice for users to be able to change cells as the macro is running. (which is a second on select macro)
Thank you
Sorry just reread the question. I wouldn't expect the permutation to run for very long - not long enough to interrupt really.
But if it does, then the advice about using lots of DoEvents stands.
The other option is that you can use the OnTime event to have a "heartbeat"
VBA Macro On Timer style to run code every set number of seconds, i.e. 120 seconds
You can set the timer to say 3 seconds. Every time the OnTime event occurs you do one step of your permutation. In the three seconds in between they can edit.
Refactor your macro to use Events. In which case, you would have a series of event handlers (instead of one monolithic macro) to respond to various triggers. This is assuming that the macro is influenced by what the user is doing in the worksheet.
One way of (sort of) doing this is to use a Modeless Userform (UserForm.Show vbModeless)
The user form stays visible but the VBA stops running when the form is shown and the user can then interact with Excel. Then when the user clicks a button on the form the code behind the button starts running again.
So in reality the user is either interacting with Excel or interacting with the form ...

How to update an Access VBA app with 30 forms?

I need to update an Access VBA app with around 30 forms in it.
I have to amend a screen that seems to have been set up right at the start of the app, it uses a lot of SQL tables. Is there an way of finding my way to the start of the code?
I come from a procedural coding background and I am unused to code that doesn't have a start and an end; I also know a bit of VB, some ASP, some .Net and general computing.
When something "automagically" happens upon opening an Access database, it is almost always because
A "startup form" has been specified. (In Access_2010 that's done in File > Options > Current Database > Display Form.) ...or...
The database has a Macro named AutoExec which is automatically run when the database is opened (unless you bypass it by holding the [Shift] key down while opening).
In addition to #Gord's answer, there's a few things you need to know. I'm going to give you the quick & dirty version.
First, there's 2 types of code in Access. VBA & macros. Sometimes what's called a macro, is really VBA.
In Access, a macro is a set of instructions to do something to the database. It's very limited in what it can do. These are often used by novices who don't know how to program in VBA.
VBA is the real powerhouse behind the scenes. It can do everything a macro can do, but a whole lot more.
Access uses an Event-Driven / Object-Oriented (at least close enough for this discussion) interface. Do a Google search on those meanings. But very quickly, the listbox on a form is an object. It has properties (like width), methods (add an item), and events (click on an item).
To see the code, for macros look to to your navigation window to your left. For VBA (modules), look to the same window, or just press Alt-F11. VBA can be used standalone in a module, or behind the scenes of a form or report.
Once you get the hang of it, you'll find Access to be a handy RAD tool for small projects.
Good luck.
It appears that you already have found the form that opens when the app starts (if not, check out Gord Thompson's answer).
The first things that happen when an Access Form opens (the "start of the code", as you called it) are the Load and Open events.
If there is any code in this form that is connected to these events, then it's in the Form_Load() and Form_Open() functions in the code of the form.

VBA Status Bar

I am working on a Word VBA macro app for 80 or so users. The office has high staff turnover, so training suffers, and so one of the self imposed requirements for this project is comprehensive, friendly documentation. However, to supplement this, and to save newbies having to open up a 100 page document when they want to try something new, I want a status bar on every userform (there are five) that provides contextual help. I find tooltips annoying.
I don't have a lot of experience, so I was wanting to
Essentially, I have a file containing every status string. (This is currently a text file, but I was wondering if I should use a spreadsheet or csv for ease of editing by other staff in future.) Every control has a MouseMove event which refers to a function: getStatus(cID) that opens the file, grabs the line and displays it in the status label. It also grabs a few parameters from the same line in the file, such as whether the label is clickable (to link to a page in the help file), and what colour the label should be.
So a few questions really:
Will the application be slow if a userform is constantly referring to a file? It feels fine to me, but I've been in it far too long, and I'm the only user accessing that file. There will be 80 constantly accessing it.
Is MouseMove over a control the best way? Should I instead use co-ordinates?
Most importantly (in terms of me having to do as little work as possible) is there some way to do this so that I do not have to have a MouseMove event on every single control? I have a good few hundred or so controls, each with their own identifier (well, not yet, but they will if this is the only way to do it). Maybe when the form loads I could load ALL the possible status lines so they're ready for whenever the control is moused over. But then, maybe the loading time is negligible?
Appreciate any ideas or thoughts - especially if VBA already has a whole range of functions to do this already and I'm just trying to reinvent the wheel. I can't use the application status bar, because the user rarely sees the application itself.
Thanks!
EDIT:
It is for both data entry, clicking around and a bit of document generation.
It is a controlled environment so macro security issues aren't a big concern for me - and if something goes wrong it's someone else's fault or problem :)
Is this data entry app or do they just click stuff? Because often the field with focus is different to the item the mouse is hovering over, this can cause a lot of confusion.
Constantly reading from a file is a huge waste of time and resources - it is much better to load them only once into an array or collection when the form is loaded.
On MouseMouse event is better than coordinates because you can move things around without worrying. It's a lot of code but you should be able to generate most of that if you have a list of control names because the code should be identical.
ie
Sub Control_MouseMove()
DisplayStatus(Control)
End sub
I would consider the StatusText property and ControlTipText property of controls for this kind of help.
StatusText
This example sets the status bar help text for the form field named "Age."
With ActiveDocument.FormFields("Age")
.OwnStatus = True
.StatusText = "Type your current age."
End With
ControlTipText
This can be assigned from the property sheet for the control.
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
MultiPage1.Page1.ControlTipText = "Here in page 1"
MultiPage1.Page2.ControlTipText = "Now in page 2"
CommandButton1.ControlTipText = "And now here's"
CommandButton2.ControlTipText = "a tip from"
CommandButton3.ControlTipText = "your controls!"
End Sub