Changing property settings by code

[RexesOperator]

This is getting into some stratospheric territory for me.

I am trying to change the visibility property of a label and corresponding text box, based on the contents of a different combo box. cboHow is a combo box that uses a value list as its row source, since the content of the list won't change. There are three fields that I need when the content of cboHow = "FIS". Otherwise I don't need them and I don't want to see them. My code is below:

Private Sub txtFISDepartmentNumber_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
If cboHow <> "FIS" Then
lblFISDepartmentNumber.Visible = False
txtFISDepartmentNumber.Visible = False
Else: lblFISDepartmentNumber.Visible = True
txtFISDepartmentNumber.Visible = True
End Sub

At the moment there is no error code, but the label and text field don't respond by becoming visible/invisible when the contents of cboHow changes. Do I put this code with the txtFISDepartmentNumber or in cboHow? and do I use BeforeUpdate or AfterUpdate? Should I have a separate If..Then..Else for the label and the text box?

I have been playing around with this for several hours now and seem to be going in circles.

I am using A2K

 

[gemma-the-husky]

a few things

1. you don't really need this code in the before update event of the departnumber.

2. you dont need to touch the label - if the label is attached to the textbox, they will be both be visible/not visible as a pair

3. you really need this attached to the cbohow afterupdate event, and you can do it more elegantly with this one line. since visible is a boolean flag, you can do this by equating the visible property with a boolean evaluation as follows. Hope it makes sense

sub cbohow_afterupdate event
txtFISDepartmentNumber.Visible = (cbohow="FIS")

you also need to test the setting when you change to a different records, so you need this same statement attached to the oncurrent event

 

[RexesOperator]

Either I'm up late (I'm near Toronto, Canada) or you're up awfully early (I see you're in the UK). I'm glad for both, because this solution works like a charm.

I didn't know that labels were attached to a text box - makes too much sense for microsoft! Is it safe to assume that is NOT the case with unbound text boxes?

 

[ansentry]

No.

Unbound text boxes work the same as gemma-the-husky explained.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i am in the UK and couldn't sleep, so I had a look at some postings, and changed a bit of code I had been working on

When you add a text box (or indeed any control) to a form the label that comes with it is attached to the control and doesn't need any further attention - it takes the control's display properties, effectively.

Unattached labels would need to be addressed individually.

 

[RexesOperator]

Now that I have this working (many thanks) for future data entry, can I make the items invisible on earlier transactions when cboHow <> FIS?

I tried Private Sub cboHow_BeforeUpdate(), but that generates an error. Logically it should (BeforeUpdate, OnCurrent and AfterUpdate shouldn't be the same), but how do I attach the code so these field are invisible when they haven't been used.

 

[RexesOperator]

Never mind - it works perfectly

 

[gemma-the-husky]

that's why you need things like this in the current event - so they work on existing data, as well as new data.

good luck