I don't know if this is more of a form question, or a VBA question.  But in
any case, I have a VBA module, called by clicking a Command button on one
form (we'll call it FormA).  The VBA module processes a variety of records
from my database, and because it may take a while, I want to inform the user
of the progress it's making.

So I created a little form (call it FormB) with a couple of informational
fields, and in my VBA code (at various spots), when critical data changes, I
want to "post" it to that form so the user can see the progress of the
function.

I thought I had it all created correctly, and when I click the button on
FormA, I can certainly tell that the module is running.  And sure enough, it
*appears* that FormB is coming up, because the outline of the form appears,
with the title bar visible...  but nothing else on the form is visible.  And
it STAYS that way for the entire duration of the function, which ends by
closing FormB (which happens entirely correctly).

The problem, of course, is that I see none of my "progress information",
since FormB never fully seems to come up.  I'm calling the form from my VBA
code as follows:

        DoCmd.OpenForm "Track Processing"

At first, I thought that maybe I needed to "do something" on the form, so I
even tried a SetFocus to the form immediately after this line:

        Forms![Track Processing].SetFocus

No difference.  So what do I need to do to make the form come up AND have
the fields on it be visible?

Oh, BTW, I can bring up the Debug window and manually enter that first line
exactly as shown above (the OpenForm line), and the form comes up perfectly.
So it's ONLY when calling it from my VBA Function that it doesn't.

Any suggestions?
------------------------------
Frank D. Nicodem, Jr.

Try a DoEvents right after you open the form and then in the loop right after every update to the form.  I do this and it works
great.  Problem is that Access doesn't yield enough time to Windows to get the form updated.  DoEvents makes Access yield.

--

Sco

M.L. "Sco" Scofield, MCT, MCP, MSS
Useful Metric Conversion #3 of 19: 500 millinaries = 1 seminary

after every update to the form.

Well, I got really e{*filter*}d after I put a DoEvents immediately after the form
Open, and the form came up OK!!  But that was *all* that happened.  Even
with a DoEvents after *every* update to the form, all of the fields remain
blank -- nothing appears to happen (except that the Function continues to
run successfully).

And based on your suggestion re: the DoEvents, I tried something else -- I
put a breakpoint at the beginning of the Function, and then *single-stepped*
through it.  And the fields DID get updated, as they should!!  So evidently
it must be related to what you said, but there must be more to it.  Because
now I can get the form to display, but nothing updated in the fields.  (Oh,
and I know that the command syntax is OK, because I can cut the lines that
update the fields, paste them into the Debug Windows, and execute them --
and the fields get updated correctly.)

So any other suggestions as to what I might do to get the fields updated?
And if it helps, I'm not using Text boxes, but Labels, since I am only
really putting out informational messages, and don't want editable fields.
So I'm setting the Caption property of the various labels, rather than
putting text into a Text box.  Don't know if that makes a difference, but
thought I'd mention it.
------------------------------
Frank D. Nicodem, Jr.

I do exactly what you described all the time.  Set the caption of a label to the new data and a DoEvents.  Works just fine in Acc2
and Acc97.  Don't know what to tell you.  As an experiment, you might try using locked text boxes, although I can't see this making
a difference.

--

Sco

M.L. "Sco" Scofield, MCT, MCP, MSS
Useful Metric Conversion #4 of 19: 2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds

On thing I would try is to do a form object Refresh command after each
Doevents.

Form1.Refresh

or

Form1.Repaint

try that

Clint

The Repaint did the trick!  Mike, I don't know *why* the DoEvents alone
didn't work.  I would tend to agree with you that it should, especially
since the *first* DoEvents did succeed in bringing up the complete form.
But for some reason, changes to the Label fields wouldn't be reflected
(visually).  However, following each change with a Repaint took care of the
problem!

Thanks to both of you.
------------------------------
Frank D. Nicodem, Jr.