Access.2007.VBA.Bibl..

I

n the previous chapters I discussed creating Word documents, Excel

worksheets, and various types of Outlook items using VBA Automation

code. But these aren’t the only types of documents you need to work

with — sometimes you need to create a plain text document, or import data

from one into an Access table. But, before you can work with these docu-

ments, you need to work with folders. This chapter covers writing code

that works with Windows Explorer folders and text files, using several

different methods.

As Access versions have progressed, the available tools for working with files

or folders have advanced. In Access 1.0, the notoriously cryptic callback

function was the only way to get a list of files to display in a combo box or

listbox. By Windows 95, the CommonDialogcontrol was a possibility, at

least if you had the Developer edition of Office. But the CommonDialog

control was plagued with version problems — if you put one version of it on

a form, and sent the database to another person who had a different version

of the control, the other person would just get the mysterious message

“There is no object in this control” on opening the form with the

CommonDialogcontrol.

See Chapter 8 for information on working with Outlook

folders.

Another advance came with the Scripting Runtime library, which provided a

FileSystemObjectobject (yes, that’s two objects!) that is very useful for

finding, working with, or creating files and folders in code. However, it

doesn’t offer a dialog-type interface for selecting files or folders.

The next advance came with Office XP, which introduced a new tool for

working with files and folders. The FileDialogobject (part of the Office

CROSS-REFCROSS-REF

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating Windows folders

Creating FolderPicker and

FilePicker dialogs using the

Office FileDialog object

Writing data to text files using

the FileSystemObject, legacy VB

statements, and ADO

Reading data from text files

using the FileSystemObject,

legacy VB statements, and ADO

Loading files into Attachment

fields and saving attachments

to files

Working with Files

and Folders