Can I use conditional formatting for when command button gets focus?

Question

I have a form with many fields, and as the user completes a field and presses Enter or Tab to move to the next field, they can usually see the cursor flashing in the field to indicate that's what has the focus. However, when a command button gets the focus, the only indication is that the button has a super fine line around the outside.

My users are mostly older people, many with vision limitations. Is there a way I can make this more obvious? I thought conditional formatting, but that seems rather convoluted.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Answer 1

Ken's suggestion can easily be expanded to work for any control that has the ForeColor property.  First create a function in a standard module (not a form's module):

Public Function Highlight(frm As Form, OnOff As Boolean)

Static PrevColor As Long

With frm.ActiveControl

If OnOff Then

   PrevColor = .ForeColor 

   .ForeColor = vbRed

   .FontBold = True

Else

   .ForeColor = PrevColor

   .FontBold = False

End If

End With

End Function

Then you need to set the OnGotFocus property of each control that can receive the focus (and has the ForeColor property) to =Highlight(Form, True) and the OnLostFocus property to =Highlight(Form, False)

That can be done wholesale by using Shift+Click on each control and then setting the properties for all of the selected controls in one shot.  You will have to repeat the selecting and setting properties for each form though.

Answer 2

For text boxes and combo boxes, you can use conditional formatting to highlight them when they have the focus:

• Select a bunch of text boxes and/or combo boxes.
• On the Format tab of the ribbon, click Conditional Formatting.
• Under Condition 1, select "Field Has Focus" from the dropdown.
• Click the B for bold (you can also change the font color and/or the background color if you wish).
• Click OK.

Answer 3

Thank you both, Hans and Ken!! These are both brilliant suggestions.

My next question becomes...Is there any way to do this globally in the application, or even for each form? How great if the font of any control that has focus changed to Bold until focus is lost. It would be so much easier for older people to see.

Sorry to be a pain, but great ideas can always be enhanced.

Answer 4

Another way would be to change the control's ForeColor property in its GotFocus event procedure, e.g.

    With Me.ActiveControl

        .ForeColor = vbRed

    End With

and back again in its LostFocus event procedure, e.g.

    With Me.ActiveControl

        .ForeColor = vbBlack

    End With

Answer 5

You could do the following:

• Place a box (rectangle) around the command button.
• Set its Border Width to for example 3 points, and its Border Color to for example red.
• Set its Visible property to No.
• Create event procedures for the On Got Focus and On Lost Focus events of the command button:

Private Sub cmdMyButton_GotFocus()

    Me.rctBox.Visible = True

End Sub

Private Sub cmdMyButton_LostFocus()

    Me.rctBox.Visible = False

End Sub

where cmdMyButton is the name of the command button and rctBox is the name of the rectangle.