GetOption, SetOption Methods

See Also         Example         Applies To

• The GetOption method returns the current value of an option in the Options dialog box, available by clicking Options on the Tools menu.
  
  
• The SetOption method sets the current value of an option in the Options dialog box.

Syntax

object.GetOption(optionname)

object.SetOption optionname, setting

The GetOption and SetOption methods have the following arguments.

Remarks

The GetOption and SetOption methods provide a means of changing environment options from Visual Basic code. With these methods, you can set or read any option available in the Options dialog box, except for options on the Modules tab.

The available option settings depend on the type of option being set. There are three general types of options:

• Yes/No options that can be set by selecting or clearing a check box.
  
  
• Options that can be set by entering a string or numeric value.
  
  
• Predefined options that can be chosen from a list box, combo box, or option group.

For options that the user sets by selecting or clearing a check box, the GetOption method returns True (–1) if the option setting is Yes (the check box is selected) or False (0) if the option setting is No (the check box is cleared). To set an option of this kind by using the SetOption method, specify True or False for the setting argument, as in the following example:

Application.SetOption "Show Status Bar", True

For options that the user sets by typing a string or numeric value, the GetOption method returns the setting as it's displayed in the dialog box. The following example returns a string containing the left margin setting:

Dim varSetting As Variant
varSetting = Application.GetOption("Left Margin")

To set this type of option by using the SetOption method, specify the string or numeric value that would be typed in the dialog box. The following example sets the default form template to OrderTemplate:

Application.SetOption "Form Template", "OrderTemplate"

For options with settings that are choices in list boxes or combo boxes, the GetOption method returns a number corresponding to the position of the setting in the list. Indexing begins with zero, so the GetOption method returns zero for the first item, 1 for the second item, and so on. For example, if the Default Field Type option on the Tables/Queries tab is set to AutoNumber, the sixth item in the list, the GetOption method returns 5.

To set this type of option, specify the option's numeric position within the list as the setting argument for the SetOption method. The following example sets the Default Field Type option to AutoNumber:

Application.SetOption "Default Field Type", 5

Other options are set by clicking on an option button in an option group in the Options dialog box. In Visual Basic, these options are also set by specifying a particular option's position within the option group. The first option in the group is numbered zero, the second, 1, and so on. For example, if the Selection Behavior option on the Forms/Reports tab is set to Partially Enclosed, the GetOption method returns zero, as in the following example:

Debug.Print Application.GetOption("Selection Behavior")

To set an option that's a member of an option group, specify the index number of the option within the group. The following example sets Selection Behavior to Fully Enclosed:

Application.SetOption "Selection Behavior", 1

Notes

• When you use the GetOption method or the SetOption method to set an option in the Options dialog box, you don't need to specify the individual tab on which the option is found.
  
  
• You can't use the GetOption method or the SetOption method to read or set any of the options found on the Module tab of the Options dialog box.
  
  
• If the return value of the GetOption method is assigned to a variable, the variable must be declared as a Variant.
  
  
• If your database may run on a version of Microsoft Access for a language other than the one in which you created it, then you must supply the arguments for the GetOption and SetOption methods in English.

When you quit Microsoft Access, you can reset all options to their original settings by using the SetOption method on all changed options. You may want to create public variables to store the values of the original settings. You might include code to reset options in the Close event procedure for a form, or in a custom exit procedure that the user must run to quit the application.