Protect all fields, then on button click, open them up to editing

[ballj_35]

I would like to protect all fields when a user enters a screen. Then allow them to click on a button and make the fields available for editing. Another button to make the fields on the screen protected again.



My thoughts were on the Form_Load and Form_Activate, make all of the fields Enabled = FALSE. But my issue is when I am creating a button for the Form, what type of Button is it going to be. I use the wizard for the control, but I do not know what to make it.

What should happen is that when the user clicks on the Edit Record button, I will just make the click action set the fields to Enabled = True. When the user clicks on Protect recored button, it will set the fields Enabled = False.

Cna someone plz help me on where I should be doing this best or any other ideas?
Thanx in advance.


Jerry

[Robeen]

When you create your button, don't use the Wizard. Just cancel out of it.
Then, select the button and Open the Properties [button on top of screen].
There you can 'Name' and 'Caption' the Button.

Next . . .
Click the 'Event Tab on the Property Sheet and
Click the '[...]' to the right of the 'On Click' row and
Select 'Code Builder' . . . and a VBA Code Window will open.

You can use code something like this between the two lines that Access puts in the VBA Code Editor for you:

Dim ctl As Control
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
    If (ctl.ControlType = acTextBox) Then
        ctl.Enabled = False
    End If
Next ctl

You can read a nice article on this on this web site: http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=5010

You could also name each Text Box individually and say something like this:
Me.TextBox_1.Enabled = False
Me.TextBox_2.Enabled = False
Me.TextBox_3.Enabled = False
Me.TextBox_4.Enabled = False
But looping through all the controls on the Form and disabling the ones that are Text Boxes is a useful technique to learn - and it's pretty simple as well.

Let me know if you need any help!

[Missinglinq]

A variation of this method:

If you only want to Disable some Controls on a Form, or even some Controls of a certain type , but not all Controls:

In Form Design View

1. Press and Continue Holding down the <Shift> key
2. Select all Controls you want to Enable/Disable
3. Release the <Shift> key
4. Right-Click to open Menu
5. Click on Properties - Other
6. In the Tag Property Box enter the word Target (no Quotation Marks!!!)

Now, in code, to Disable only the 'tagged' Controls

Dim ctl As Control
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
    If ctl.Tag = "Target" Then
        ctl.Enabled = False
    End If
Next ctl

And to reverse this, of course, you just change

ctl.Enabled = False

to

ctl.Enabled = True

Linq ;0)>

[Missinglinq]

Actually, in re-reading your post, two things occurred to me.

First off, you wouldn't want your Controls to be Disabled except when you clicked on your 'edit' button, as Enable set to False causes the Fields to be greyed out! Not a very nice display option.

Secondly, if you want all Controls/Fields locked, after the initial Record is saved, until you use the 'edit' button, you can do that with two lines of code:

Private Sub Form_Current()
  Me.AllowEdits = False
End Sub

Private Sub EditButton_Click()
  Me.AllowEdits = True
End Sub

This will allow you to enter New Records, but once you move to another Record, enter another New Record or Close the Form, that Record will be 'locked,' until the EditButton is clicked. Once you move to another Record, its Controls will be locked. If you were to depend on the user resetting the Controls to the 'locked position,' as it were, you'd really be right back where started, with the ability to accidentally change something back in place!

Linq ;0)>