using Common Controls in Access VBA (VBA/Access/97)

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This is my first post, so go easy with me! I’m developing an Access 97 database and want to use some common controls in my VBA code (the file open dialog and a progress bar). Whenever I try to use these, or almost any of the extra tools on the scrolling list available from the toolbox, I get an error message saying that “The OLE server isn’t registered. To register the OLE server, reinstall it.” I thought I had installed everything in Office 97, and I cannot find this in the knowledgebase. Any idea what is going wrong?

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Unless you have the Office Developer’s Edition (or VB Professional), you don’t have a license for the ActiveX controls. Could that be your problem?

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Yes, that would be the problem. I didn’t know about the licensing restriction. Thanks for the quick response Charlotte.

Mike

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It’s somewhat mysterious to me why, if I can redistribute these controls with a template and the user then can use them in their own userforms, MS bothers with the limited distribution in the first place. In fact, if you were to snoop around the MS site, you could not only find all of the recent ActiveX controls available for ,">instructions on how to register them using a menu choice in Access. (The same command is on the end of the Control Toolbox toolbar in Word and Excel, at the bottom of the list of already-registered ActiveX controls.) Have they gone mad with contradiction? Maybe, but that is for MS to decide as the copyright owner. Just because something is on the Internet does not mean it is licensed, and if you want to comply with the license and do not own VB or Office Developer, you must receive the controls as part of a VB or VBA solution from someone who does.

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Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I’m doing the development on my work PC, and I’m not allowed to install stuff on that. If it isn’t part of the standard Office install, I can’t use it. Of course, I understand that you weren’t encouraging me to use the controls without proper licensing, no matter how daft the restrictions are!

Mike

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Get them to buy you the Developer’s Tools for Office 97 and you’ll have a license to both use and distribute those controls.

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