Introduction

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Programming Command Buttons

In the previous lesson we built a GUI form and on that form we placed some controls; specifically, four controls were placed – a text box, a list box and two command buttons.

In this lesson we will build program code to make the command buttons “work”.

In VBE double-click on the Cancel button. The GUI form will temporarily disappear and an empty procedure will appear in its place:

Private Sub cmdCancel_Click()
End Sub

Introduce one line of code into this skeletal procedure – the code says “Unload Me”.

“Me” is a standard name for the current user form; no matter what names or captions we have assigned the user form, within itself we can always refer to the form itself as “Me”.

Private Sub Cancel_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub

Run the form (with the F5 key) and observe that you can now clear the form away (as a user) by either tapping the Escape key or by clicking the Cancel button.

In VBE double click the OK button:

Private Sub cmdOK_Click()
End Sub

We want the OK button to display something useful BEFORE it hides the user form:

Private Sub cmdOK_Click()
MsgBox Me.tbInput
Me.Hide
End Sub

When you run the form, type some text in the text box and then click the OK command button; a small message-box should pop up containing the text you had keyed into the text box.

Of course, if you had typed no text, you’d get a message box with no message!

Private Sub cmdOK_Click()
If Me.tbInput <> "" Then
MsgBox Me.tbInput
Else
End If
Me.Hide
End Sub

In the next lesson we will learn how to initialize a list box, and how to make use of it in our GUI form.

Toronto and Mississauga, Friday, March 19, 2010 10:54 AM