Create a global function

Question

Hello

I would like to place some “Help File” buttons around my database.  These will be placed next to buttons, combos, list, forms, etc.  They will allow the user to click the button to see a pop up that will give hints and tips on using that specific control.

At the top of each form I will have a “Show Help” button which will set all the Help Buttons on that form to visible Yes.  This will change to a “Hide Help” caption which will then set the visible to No.

I would like to call a function OnClick of this button

Rather than have this code in each form I would like to create a global module which will set the visible of any buttons named “Help*” on the form that the user is on.  There will be forms and sub forms.

Would it be possible to create such a module? And if so, how would it be done.

The show help button on each form will be called   HelpShowForm1, HelpShowForm2, etc.

This will set the visible of the help buttons on that form eg.  HelpForm1Combo,  HelpFom4NameList, HelpForm27DateOfBirth, etc, etc

Thank you

Answer 1

First, I would use a different naming convention. I would use cmdHelpassociatedcontrolThere is noi need to number them that I see. 

Second, I would set the Tag property of each of those controls to simply Help. So this identifies them as Help buttons.

Your function would look something like this

Public Sub ShowHideHelp(frm as Form)

Dim ctl As Control

For each ctl in frm.Controls

If ctl.Tag = "Help"

If ctl.Visible Then

ctl.Visible = False

Else

ctl.Visible = True

End If

End If

Next ctl

End Sub

You would call this sub with the line

Call ShowHideHelp(Screen.ActiveForm)

Disclaimer: this code is off the top of my head and untested. It may not be syntactically correct, but should give you the idea.

Answer 2

You can create a Public Sub in a Standard Module passing in the Form Object (or the Form name and re-create the reference to the Form Object in the Sub). The code in the Sub can traverse the Controls Collection of the Form and for each Control, check whether it is a CommandButton with name starting with "Help" and if so, reverse its visibility.

If the Control is a SubForm, then make a "recursive" call to the same Sub but this time pass in the Form Object of the SubFormControl.