Using Pop-up Forms and Dialog Boxes

You can use pop-up forms and dialog boxes in your application to:

• Display information to the user.
• Prompt the user for data needed by the application to continue.

A pop-up form stays on top of other open forms, even when another form is active. For example, the property sheet in form Design view is a pop-up form. Another example of a pop-up form is the ProductsPopup form in the Orders sample application, which is discussed earlier in this chapter.

The ProductsPopup form is modeless, which means you can access other objects and menu commands in Microsoft Access while the form is open and make them active. In contrast, a modal pop-up form prevents you from accessing other Microsoft Access objects or menu commands until you close or hide the form. Use a modeless pop-up form when you want the user to be able to shift the focus between the pop-up form and other elements of the user interface without having to close the pop-up form. For example, use a modeless pop-up form if you want to be able to view information on the pop-up form while accessing menu commands and toolbar buttons.

A familiar example of a modal pop-up form is a dialog box. For example, the PrintInvoiceDialog form is a dialog box in the Orders sample application that prompts the user to specify an order invoice to print.

Use a dialog box (a modal pop-up form) when you want the user to close the dialog box or respond to its message before proceeding, such as when you collect information your application needs to complete an operation.

Û To create a modeless pop-up form

• Create the form and set its PopUp property to Yes (the default setting of the Modal property is No).

Û To create a modal pop-up form (such as a dialog box)

• Create the form and set its PopUp and Modal properties to Yes.

Note   You use the BorderStyle property to set the style of the border for a pop-up form or dialog box. To display a dialog box with a typical thick border that has no Minimize and Maximize buttons, set the BorderStyle property to Dialog. For more information on the different border styles you can use, search the Help index for “BorderStyle property.” For information on the interaction between the BorderStyle, MinMaxButtons, and ControlBox properties when creating pop-up forms and dialog boxes, search the Help index for “pop-up forms.”

You can also open any form as a dialog box by setting the windowmode argument of the OpenForm method to acDialog (or in a macro, by setting the Window Mode argument of the OpenForm action to Dialog). The following line of code opens a dialog box named FilterDialog:

DoCmd.OpenForm "FilterDialog", windowmode:=acDialog

When you use this technique, Microsoft Access suspends execution of the code or macro until the dialog box form is hidden or closed.

See Also   For more information on the windowmode argument of the OpenForm method or action, search the Help index for “OpenForm method” or “OpenForm action.”

Tip   If you simply want to display a short message to the user or prompt the user for short text input, the easiest approach is to use a message box or input box instead of a pop-up form. For more information on displaying a message in a message box, see “Using a Message Box to Display a Message” later in this chapter. For more information on displaying an input box to prompt the user for text input, search the Help index for “InputBox function.”

Example

Creating a Pop-up Form to Display Details About an Item in a Subform

The Orders form in the Orders sample application includes a command button named Details that opens a form showing details about the current product in the subform.

See Also   For information on creating the Details command button, see the example “Customizing a Command Button That Opens a Form” earlier in this chapter.

Because you want users to be able to continue filling out an order while answering customers’ questions about the product, you need the form opened by the Details button to stay on top of the Orders form.

Step One: Create the pop-up form Use the Form Wizard to create the pop-up form, specifying the product, supplier, and category information you want to display. Name the form ProductsPopup.

Step Two: Set the form’s properties Open the form in Design view and set properties to make the form look and work like a dialog box. The following table shows the property settings for the form.

Private Sub Preview_Click()
	On Error GoTo Err_Print_Click

	Dim strDocName As String
	Dim strLinkCriteria As String

	Me.Visible = False
	strDocName = "Invoice"
	strLinkCriteria = "OrderID = " & OrderID
	DoCmd.OpenReport strDocName, acViewPreview, , strLinkCriteria
		.
		.
		.
End Sub

Private Sub OrderID_DblClick(Cancel As Integer)
	Preview_Click
End Sub

MsgBox "The order is saved.", , "Save Order"

MsgBox "New Product:" & vbCrLf & "Enter a 5-digit Product ID"