Automatic Input masks

Private Sub Country_AfterUpdate()
Dim strCountry As String
strCountry = Me.Country

    Select Case strCountry
        Case "Canada"
            Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = ">L0L\ 0L0;;_"
        Case "USA"
            Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = "00000-9999;;_"
        Case Else
        'If the country is not Canada or USA no input mask will be used
            Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = ""
    End Select
End Sub

comp.databases.ms-access forum

Working with postal codes in Access

As a rule, if you won't be performing numeric calculations on the data, entries should be stored as text. Social Security numbers, Phone numbers and postal codes should be stored as text.


You can use alphabetic characters in an input mask. For example, one of the sample input masks is >L0L\ 0L0 used to represent a Canadian postal code.

The ">" character in the input mask converts all the characters that follow to uppercase.

The "L" character requires an alpha entry; the "0" (zero) requires a numeric entry.

A "\"character causes the following character to be displayed as a literal character rather than a mask character.

A space appears between the three character pairs.
For example, V5P 2G1 is one valid postal code that the user could enter. The mask would prevent the user from entering two sequential alphabetic characters or numbers.

See:

Trinity University - San Antonio, Texas:
Input mask

Definition characters used to create an input mask
Some validation rules

You can manipulate postal codes in Access by changing the data type, input mask, or format of a postal code field.

Microsoft KB 207829:
ACC2000: How to Manipulate ZIP Codes in Microsoft Access.

Also see:
Postal Codes



See all Topics

access

Labels: Entries, Forms, Macros, VBA

Sent from Access

A recent issue has information about sending reminders to Outlook from Access.

"If you have a table that contains a date field, and you want to make sure that something happens on that date, one way is to create an Outlook task with a reminder that will pop up on the specified date; you can even use the Outlook reminder to create an email message that will be sent on the specified date.

This article will show how to create an Outlook task from Access VBA code, and send an email message when the task's reminder fires."

The file is located on Helen Feddema's site.
Access Archon
Scroll down to #126

The zip file contains the WAW article, in Word format, plus the supporting file.

Helen Feddema has been working with Word since v. 1.1, Access since the beta of v. 1.0, and Outlook since the beta of v. 8.0 (that's where Outlook started its version numbering).

Labels: E-mail, VBA

An easier read

Use named arguments for cleaner VBA code.

Most likely, you use positional arguments when working with VBA functions. For instance, to create a message box, you probably use a statement that adheres to the following syntax:

 MsgBox(prompt[, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])

MsgBox "Hello World!", , "My Message Box"

MsgBox Title:="My Message Box", _
       Prompt:="Hello World!"

Labels: VBA

Macros to Modules

Before Access 2000, the speculation was that Access would lose "Macros" and enter the exclusive world of VBA. It hasn't happened yet.

If you have macros in a database that you would like to convert to code, doing so is easy.

In Access 97: Right-click on the macro in the Database window and then choose Save As/Export from the shortcut menu. Then, select the Save As Visual Basic Module option button and click OK. You are then given the option of adding error handling functions and comments to the new module. Select the options you want and click Convert.

In Access 2000/2002+: Right-click on the macro in the Database window and then choose Save As from the shortcut menu. Enter the name of the module you want to create in the text box and choose Module from the As dropdown list. Next, click OK. You will be given the option of adding error handling functions and comments to the new module. Select the options you want and click Convert.

In 2007 go to Database Tools and look in the Macros group.


Sam's Publishing:
Taking More Control of Access
By Gordon Padwick.


Access 2007 introduces a new type of macros called embedded macros. Embedded macros are macros that are stored on an event instead of as a separate object. Embedded macros support name fix-up and are used extensively through-out our templates. They are largely targeted to information workers that don’t write code but useful for developers that are trying to perform some simple actions.



See all Topics

access

Labels: Macros, VBA

Video + Free code

"Learn tips and use sample code for several Office applications. These tips can help you to be more productive and can also be a starting point for developing your own tools, utilities and techniques."

• Update Word Document Statistics in the Title Bar
  
• Create Outlook Rules Programmatically
  
• Delete Repeated Text Throughout a Word Document
  
• Run Macros Based on the Value of One or More Excel Spreadsheet Cells
  
• Disable Related Controls on a PowerPoint Slide After a User Clicks an Input Control
  
• Display Reminder Information When a User Opens an Office Document
  
• Synchronize an Access Main Form to a Subform and Vice Versa
  
• Log Worksheet Changes to an XML File
  
• Merge Body Text from Multiple Outlook E-mail Messages to a Word Document
  
• Use the Office Assistant as an Alternative to Displaying and Retrieving User Input

Labels: VBA

Office Wide

"Automation (formerly known as OLE Automation) is a feature of the Component Object Model (COM), an industry-standard technology that applications use to expose their objects, methods, and properties to development tools, macro languages, and other applications.

For example, a spreadsheet application might expose a worksheet, chart, cell, or range of cells--each as a different type of object. A word processor might expose objects such as an application, document, paragraph, bookmark, or sentence.

When an application supports Automation, the objects that the application exposes can be accessed through Visual Basic. You can use Visual Basic to manipulate the objects by invoking methods or by getting and setting properties of the objects."

Here's an example:

Inserting Data into a Microsoft Word Document

With Automation code, you can open a Microsoft Word document and move to a bookmark location in the document. The following example opens a Microsoft Word document and inserts text after a bookmark.

This example assumes that you have Microsoft Word on your computer, that you have an existing document called C:\My Documents\WordTest.doc, and that the document contains a pre-defined bookmark named City.

Sub FindBMark()

   Dim wordApp As Word.Application
   Dim wordDoc As Word.Document
   Dim wordRange As Word.Range

   Set wordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
   Set wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open("C:\My Documents\Wordtest.doc")

   wordApp.Visible = True

   ' Go to the bookmark named "City".
   Set wordRange = wordDoc.Goto(What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="City")
   wordRange.InsertAfter "Los Angeles"

   ' Print the document.
   wordDoc.PrintOut Background:=False

   ' Save the modified document.
   wordDoc.Save

   ' Quit Word without saving changes to the document.
   wordApp.Quit SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges

   Set wordApp = Nothing

End Sub

Microsoft Support provides an entire Help file to assist you. It includes theory and examples.

The file is called XPAutomation.chm.

Download it and then double click on the file to run it. You could also set up a shortcut on the desk top, if it will be used frequently.


Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: 302460

This was aimed at Office 2002 but it can be used with later versions:

• Microsoft Access
  
• Microsoft Excel
  
• Microsoft Outlook
  
• Microsoft PowerPoint
  
• Microsoft Word

Labels: VBA

Label Captions

If you've ever needed to insert line breaks in a message box prompt, you most likely built a string that incorporated a line feed or carriage return character. Unfortunately, label objects aren't as forgiving when it comes to using these characters.

If you're setting a label's Caption property with code, you'll find that the special control characters are interpreted as squares, since they're otherwise un-displayable.

To successfully insert a line break in a label caption, you need to include both a line feed character and a carriage return character, entered consecutively.

To do so, you can use the Chr() function, such as:

Me.Label1.Caption = "Line 1" & _
     Chr(13) & Chr(10) & "Line 2"

Me.Label1.Caption = "Line 1" & vbCrLf & "Line 2"

Labels: VBA

Tag Property

Dim ctl As Control
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
 If ctl.Tag = "Hide" Then
 ctl.Visible = False
 End If
Next

Labels: Macros, Properties, VBA

Realign a bunch

Labels: VBA

More code

Function Highlight(Stat As String) As Integer
Dim ctrl As Control
On Error Resume Next
Set ctrl = Screen.ActiveControl
If Stat = "GotFocus" Then
    ctrl.BackColor = vbHighlight
    ctrl.ForeColor = vbHighlightText
ElseIf Stat = "LostFocus" Then
    ctrl.BackColor = vbWindowBackground
    ctrl.ForeColor = vbWindowText
End If
End Function

Private Sub controlName_GotFocus()
        controlname.BackColor = Orange
        End Sub
        Private Sub controlName_LostFocus()
        controlname.BackColor = LightBlue
        End Sub

Labels: VBA

Cardinal numbers

Labels: Functions, VBA

Edit toolbar

You'll many times want to change blocks of code to comments in VBA modules; temporarily convert a block of VBA code to comments so that it's ignored during a trial run. Inserting an apostrophe before each line of code is a bother. Office 2000+ simplifies this task by letting you convert a block of code to comments with a click of a button.

Open any module in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), and then choose View>Toolbars and choose Edit from the menu bar to display the Edit toolbar.

Select the lines of code that you want to turn into comments. Then, click the Comment Block button on the Edit toolbar (it's the sixth button in from the RIGHT end of the toolbar).
Each line of the selected code is now preceded with an apostrophe.

To convert the comments back to executable code, select the appropriate lines and click the Uncomment Block button, which is immediately to the right of the Comment Block button.
This, of course, works in any application that uses the VBE.

Ross, suggested that two or three apostrophes (sometimes called inverted commas) be placed around existing comments. When the Comment Block is used, the original comments will not be removed.



See all Topics

access

Labels: Macros, VBA