Access VBA Macro Programming

This provides a very easy way of making a sound, although it is very limited in what it can

do. If you need more flexibility, see Chapter 20 on API calls. API calls can also be used to

play a variety of sounds.

Close

Closeis used to close an object, usually a form or report, although other object types can be

specified. It has three optional parameters. The syntax is:

Docmd.Close (ObjectType,ObjectName,Save)

ObjectType is an acObjectType constant representing the type of object to close. Examples

are acForm and acReport. The object name is the name of the form or report to be closed, and

Save is an acCloseSave constant that specifies whether to save the object or not.

This method is normally run on a form or report module of a “Close” button, so the

optional parameters are not required. Although the user may be able to close the form by

clicking the X in the top-right corner, you may want your code to have more control over the

closing of the form.

CloseDatabase

CloseDatabaseis the same as if you had clicked the Microsoft Office button in Access and

then clicked the “Close Database” button. It has no parameters.

DoCmd.CloseDatabase

Hourglass

TheHourglassmethod lets you turn the cursor into an hourglass (or whatever icon is chosen

to show a running procedure), or turn it back into the cursor. This is very useful because the

hourglass cursor does not always appear when VBA code is running, and users like to have

some reassurance that something is happening.

The syntax is:

DoCmd.Hourglass True

This turns the hourglass mouse pointer on. To turn it off, use:

DoCmd.Hourglass False

HourglassOn is True or False to denote whether to show the Hourglass.

If you switch the Hourglass on, remember to switch it back to a normal cursor afterwards.

Also, I have found that if a piece of code crashes before the cursor is switched back, it will

give the user the impression that everything is still running when it is not.

Maximize

Maximizewill, just as its name implies, maximize the active window as if the user had clicked

the Maximize button on it. It is normally used in the Open or Activate event of forms and

reports to ensure that the window fits on the user’s screen. Users frequently have different

214 Microsoft Access 2010 VBA Macro Programming