You can use the Echo action to specify whether echo is turned on. For example, you can use this action to hide or show the results of a macro while it runs.
The Echo action uses the following arguments.
| Action argument | Description |
| Echo On | Click Yes to turn echo on or No to turn it off. The default is Yes. |
| Status Bar Text | The text to display in the status bar when echo is turned off. For example, when echo is turned off, the status bar can display “The macro is running.” |
When Microsoft Access runs a macro, screen updating often shows information not essential to the functioning of the macro. When you set the Echo On argument to No, the macro runs without updating the screen. When the macro finishes, Microsoft Access automatically turns echo back on and repaints the window. The No setting for Echo On doesn’t affect the macro or its results.
The Echo action doesn’t suppress the display of modal dialog boxes, such as error messages, or pop-up forms, such as property sheets. You can use these to gather or display information when echo is turned off. Use the SetWarnings action to turn off all message or dialog boxes except error message boxes and dialog boxes that require the user to enter information.
You can run the Echo action more than once in a macro. This allows you to change the status bar text while the macro runs.
If you turn echo off, you can use the Hourglass action to change the mouse pointer into an hourglass (or whatever mouse pointer icon you have set for “Busy” in Microsoft Windows 95 or “Wait” in Windows NT) to provide a visual indication that the macro is running.
To run the Echo action in Visual Basic, use the Echo method of the DoCmd object.
Echo Method (DoCmd Object), SetWarnings Action.