Setting the Focus in a User Form (VBA/Word/2000)

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I have created a userform and would like to set the focus for the first text box in the form, rather than forcing the user to click in the text box.
I thought all I’d need to do was set the statement
ProdTitle.SetFocus
after the userform.show statement….
ha!
any suggestions?

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In the form code module, create

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()

and put your SetFocus statement in there. The problem with having it in the main code module is that it doesn’t run until the UserForm has been dismissed. (Unless I am terribly confused.)

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Then how do I get the AutoNew function to find the private sub for the form? If I move the initialize statement into the Forms’ code the autonew function does not find it?

Thanks

p.s. this just shows you that nobody tells the whole story the first time.

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Your AutoNew works exactly as it did before, don’t change a thing, just add this event handler in the code for the form so that when it loads itself, it sets the focus:

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Me.ProdTitle.SetFocus
End Sub

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is me significant?

’cause I’m still not focussed

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Catherine,

The “Me” is a keyword that can be used to refer to the UserForm object itself – you can only use this though in the userform’s own private code module.
So for instance “Unload Me”.

The SetFocus statement should be working (not sure why it isn’t), but here’s a different way that may avoid the need to use the UserForm_Initialize procedure altogether: just ensure that the ProdTitle textbox is the first item in the userform’s Tab Order.
To set this:
Click anywhere in the Userform.
Click on View > Tab Order.
This will display a Tab Order dialog.
Use the buttons to move “ProdTitle” to first in the list.

When you then “show” the userform, the focus should be go to the ProdTitle textbox.

Gary

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No luck
would the fact that it is a Multipage userform have an effect?

Thanks

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Yes, the multipage form has an effect on what gets displayed.

You also have to specify which page gets displayed.

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Me is not needed in self-references.

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Sure, but I need to type Me. to get the intellisense prompts.

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You can just type the control name to get the prompts.

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Ok – this is what it looks like now – and it is still not working.

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
UserForm1.MultiPage1.SetFocus
UserForm1.ActiveControl.SetFocus
UserForm1.ProdTitle.SetFocus

End Sub

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But “me” gives you the control names.

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If I’m following the discussion correctly then I can refer to the userform either by name or me?
ie
me.prodtitle.setfocus
or
userform1.prodtitle.setfocus

except neither work.
What would I do with a multipage form to activate it?

thanks.

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… Or even prodtitle.setfocus

But you may have to activate the page of the form on which the textbox resides in order to setfocus. Do this by setting the Value propery of the control to the page number (starting from 0)

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Can you expand on that?

Thanks

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This code:

MultiPage1.Value = 1
TextBox1.SetFocus

works on a “click” event, but not in a userform_initialize event. I’m not sure why.

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Try this,

with MultiPage1
.Value = 1
.TextBox1.SetFocus
end with

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As a larger question – if one can not setfocus in the initialize event of a form. What else is it used for?

Cheers

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Initialise is usually used to put in all the default information and list content so that when the form appears the fields contain information either from code or from data stored elsewhere.

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Aha. Got it.

This works for me:

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
MultiPage1.Value = 1
TextBox1.SetFocus
End Sub

ie- in the Activate, not the Initialize.

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Howard,

I thought you might have had something there- but I get the message “Object does not support this property or method” on the “.textbox1” line. Are you doing something different?

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You know what is really making me crazy? When I’m testing – if I click on the second page of the userform and back to the first page – the focus is EXACTLY where it should be!
How can I make that happen without forcing the user to click?

Cheers

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Rats. SetFocus sets the focus on the control but does not position the insertion point inside. What idiot designed that?

This is a very, very cheezy workaround, but…

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
‘set focus on the correct textbox
Me.TextBox1.SetFocus
‘tab to the next control, then shift-tab back
SendKeys “{TAB}+{TAB}”, True
End Sub

(For some reason, I could not get this to work: “Changing the value of SelStart cancels any existing selection in the control, places an insertion point in the text, and sets the SelLength property to zero.”

Me.TextBox1.SelStart = 0

Nope, no insertion point visible.)

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You are not doing this correctly.
It’s rather complicated to explain.
You are better served by looking at a good VB book such as Gary Cornell’s Visual Basic 6 from te Ground Up for details.

In effect, you wannas do something like the following.

In Userform_Initialize:

a. Choose the page that is on top when the userform is first displayed.
b. After you get that working, then add code to choose the control within the displayed page.

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At this location, all programming is done by Me, Myself and I.

Usually, Me does most of the programming, so Me already has a list of the control names in his head.

Myself and I, tho as experienced as Me, occasionally use different coding techniques. But Me, as the senior partner, requires that they do not use “Me.” as Me is very protective of his identity.

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I Took that into account. My page 5 is physical page 6.

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OK

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You’ll need to get private paid help on this question.

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Have you seen MS Support Bulletin Q237863 – XL2000 SetFocus Property on TextBox does not work as expected?

I’m hoping that installing the SR1A will solve my problems because my setfocus worked fine on the form under VB5 (Word97) and won’t under VB6 (Word2k)

Ann Brandon

Edited to activate link–Charlotte

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XL2000: SetFocus Property on TextBox Does Not Work as Expected (Q237863)

Hey – thanks for digging that one up Ann. It is good to know when to quit.

Cheers

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THat’s not a bug.
That’s incorrect coding. I don’t know the MSFT KB article didn;t just say that.

If you want to SetFocus BEFORE a userform is displayed, then you need to do it in the ijitialize or activate events and do the .Show in the module that invokes the userform.

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