Force form to appear

[pdanes]

I didn't read all the post and suggestions just the first few.

Well, maybe reading the rest of the thread would make the situation a bit clearer. This was discussed in some detail.

Once you start your second form with acDialog, all code processing stops in the first form until the second form closes. (I think you know that)
From my experience, it doesn't matter in which procedure you open the second form, the first one stops.
That's what acDialog does.

Yes, I'm aware of that. It also blocks access to all underlying forms, which is why I use it.

There is a way around this, using doevents,

It didn't work that way for me. I tried peppering DoEvents all through it, and it did not help.

The timer, as you found, is another way to force the first form to respond, I use it to shutdown forms on command from the system administrator, not like you are.

Yes, it was the only thing I found that worked. Well, no ... actually, it was the first thing I found that worked, so I stopped there, since I had what I wanted.

So, I would like to see what your screen looks like when you open the form without a timer.

Screenshot attached. The green and gray background is the main form. The blue is the first subform. The salmon is the second subform. This is how it looks now - the user initiates any one of several actions that open the first subform. When the second textbox in the top row is empty (meaning the item has no inventory number), the first form lights off the second form automatically, since the record may not be saved until it has a number. The second form offers a variety of acceptable numbers available at the click of a button. Or, the user may return to the main form and enter the number manually, but the second subform offers those that the user is most likely to want.

If the inventory number is already filled in, this second form is not called automatically, but is available at the click of the button directly below the number's textbox.

This is how it looks now, using the Timer event. Trying the Load and Current events, it looks the same except for the blue form is not visible - it is the salmon form directly over the green and gray main form. When the salmon form is closed, only then does the blue form appear.

Despite all the above, why not disable a command button at startup, then if your conditions are met, enable the command button after you've completely opened the first record on the first form, so the user can do their thing on the supporting form? Wouldn't that make sense if they need to see things on the first form to make decisions for the second form?

The second form is always available, if they want it, but I wanted to make it automatic in the case when they HAVE TO make some sort of selection. They do not have to make it from the form - they can type in the number manually, but it is almost certain to be one of the ones offered, so this is easier, with less chance of a typo.