Setting position on form open - Move & Resize Forms with MoveSize in Microsoft Access VBA


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Setting position on form open

Thomas Gonder

8 months ago

As mentioned in another thread, I was having all kinds of problems positioning forms properly when they were first opened. It turns out this little bit from MS on the command is quite important:
**Use the MoveSize method to move or resize the active window.**

Putting the docmd.movesize in the Open or Load procedures will not work, because... it isn't yet active! (in fact other forms may get moved instead of the one that is opening).

Luckily, most of my forms used the On Activate event, so that's a good place to put the docmd code. If you want users to be able to reposition the forms, then you'll need to add a variable so that future On Activates don't put the form back to the original start position and size.

	Richard Rost 8 months ago
Or you can use a Timer trick. Set the Form Open/Load event to: `Me.TimerInterval = 100 ' milliseconds` Now in the Timer Event say: `Me.TimerInterval = 0 ' shut off the timer ' do your move stuff here` This will cause the timer event to run 1/10th of a second after the form loads, do your move stuff, and then shut off the timer event so it doesn't run again. I cover this in a few videos.

Thomas Gonder OP

8 months ago

@ Richard, that trick works because the Timer runs after activation, I'll bet. However, I use the Timer in all my forms for checking various conditions. So, while it may work for others not using the Timer for anything special, I still think the best place is in Activation, since one may use Timer in the future. There may be another place to put to docmd.movesize in, but since Microsoft specifically mentioned "active window" I figured go with it. The question I had is if the form is "active" before or after the Activate procedure. So far, the solution seems to be working correctly, but I just know that tomorrow...

Thomas Gonder OP

8 months ago

And tomorrow arrived, after lots of testing, and a reboot, Access decided what worked yesterday wasn't going to work today. Specifically, the On Activate stopped working for a startup form (my login). So, for anyone following in my footsteps, you may, for a startup form only, try putting the placement and sizing code in the On Current event procedure (or maybe both if you suffer the same inconsistencies). I don't have any records for Login, so it only runs once. Until tomorrow when On Current stops working and On Activate takes over again...

	Richard Rost 8 months ago
Bahaha.

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