Lock Fields with Tag Property in Access

In this Microsoft Access tutorial I will show you how to create an edit mode that locks most fields on your form by default, but keeps specific fields like search combo boxes or notes unlocked and always editable. We will use the Tag property to mark which controls should be locked, and then loop through the form's controls in VBA to manage their Locked and BackColor properties efficiently, reducing the amount of manual coding needed in large forms. I will also show you how to use simple error handling for control types that don't have certain properties.

Ken from Rancho Cordova, California (a Gold Member) asks: I'm interested in having my form be read-only by default with an Edit button to make it writable. I just saw your videos about Edit Mode. In my case, I have a combo box in the header that selects a record, but it becomes frozen if I set the form's Allow Edits property to False. The only workaround I found is to set the Locked property for all the individual controls, but that's a lot of VBA if the form has many controls. Is this the best way to do it, or is there a better approach?

Members

There is no extended cut, but here is the file download:

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Prerequisites

• Edit Mode
• Tag Property
• For Each Loop
• Create Function

Links

• Find Record Combo
• RGB
• Immediate
• Error Handling
• Save Button

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Keywords

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