Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 12: The Access Event Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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of the events most commonly used by Access developers. Most of these events apply to forms and

all the different controls you might add to an Access form.

TABLE 12.1

Events Common to Multiple Object Types

Event Event Type When the Event Is Triggered

Click Mouse event When the user presses and releases (clicks) the left mouse button on an

object

DblClick Mouse event When the user presses and releases (clicks) the left mouse button twice

on an object

MouseDown Mouse event When the user presses the mouse button while the pointer is on an

object

MouseMove Mouse event When the user moves the mouse pointer over an object

MouseUp Mouse event When the user releases a pressed mouse button while the pointer is on

an object

MouseWheel Mouse event When the user spins the mouse wheel

KeyDown Keyboard event When the user presses any key on the keyboard when the object has

focus or when the user uses a SendKeys macro action

KeyUp Keyboard event When the user releases a pressed key or immediately after the user

uses a SendKeys macro action

KeyPress Keyboard event When the user presses and releases a key on an object that has the

focus or when the user uses a SendKeys macro action

Not surprisingly, these events are all associated with the mouse and the keyboard because these are

the user’s primary means of inputting information and giving directions to an application. Not

every object responds to every one of these events, but when an object responds to any of these

events, the event exhibits exactly the same behavior.

Tip
Many developers simply copy and paste VBA code from one event procedure to the same event procedure on
another object. For example, you might want to do some fancy formatting on a text box when the user clicks
into the box. You can copy the code performing the fancy formatting into another control’s Click event pro-
cedure to get the same effect without having to retype the code. Even though you’ll have to fix up the pasted
code with the second text box’s name, it’s much less work than retyping the entire procedure.

Access supports many, many different events. In fact, one of Access’s fundamental strengths is the

wide variety of events available to developers. You can control virtually every aspect of an Access

application’s behavior and data management through event procedures. Although Microsoft makes