Dialog Form in place of InputBox

[EddieN1]

I have an InputBox that is pre-populated with "ABC:". I want the cursor to start right after the colon. It appears that you can't use SelStart with InputBox. So, I wrote a simple form with only one field in it. When the operator enters the data and hits Enter, I want to close the form. Apparently, I can't close the form in an After Update or On Exit event because the procedure is still running. I also tried adding a dummy text box and closing the form in the GotFocus or On Enter event... same problem. Any ideas?

[June7]

What procedure is still running?

I open and close form for input.

Are you using acDialog parameter to open the form?

How are you passing the value back to the calling form?

[EddieN1]

Apparently On Exit or After Update Event is still running when I try to Close the form. If I put a command button to click on, that works fine but it requires the operator to pick up the mouse. Yes, I open it in acDialog mode. I use Public variables to communicate between forms (that part works fine). Anything else?

[June7]

Can set a shortcut key on the button. An & in front of any character in the button caption or associated label allows that character to be a shortcut key. This allows pressing Alt+char to execute the button click event. If there are no data controls on the form to take focus, don't even need Alt.

I disable the X close on all forms and use custom button code to close form.

I've never used form Exit or AfterUpdate events. I have used these events for controls.

Your popup is bound to data? None of my popups are bound.

[EddieN1]

Thanks for your help... prefer not to use shortcut key. requires extra keystroke. The operator will typically key 5 characters and hit Enter. The On Exit and After Update Events are for the textbox control the operator is entering data in. The popup form is not bound to data.

[EddieN1]

I'm going to mark this as "solved". The only way I was able to do this was to create a small form and open it in dialog mode.

[June7]

For InputBox, could put "ABC:" as text in the box message then in code concatenate the "ABC:" string to the user input.

Is this prefix literally the characters "ABC:" or will that prefix actually vary? If it is literally "ABC:", why bother saving?

Why not offer users shortcut key defined by & character as option? Users can either mouse or key stroke. I much prefer not having to move hand from keyboard.

[EddieN1]

The prefix ABC: is an example. To be more precise it will be 14- in 2014 and change to 15- in 2015, etc. 99% of the time, the operator will want to keep the prefix (14-) and type the rest of the identifier after the prefix. The program needs to read the entire string, such as, 14-12345. When I pre-populate the Input Box with 14-, the operator has to hit the right arrow three times or position the cursor after the 14- using the mouse. What I'm trying to do is use something like selStart=4 to default the cursor right after the 14-. In the 1% of the time that the operator will need to enter 14- in 2015, then he/she can back up to the 5 and replace it with a 4. I was unable to find a way to do this with Input Box, so I created my own dialog form where I can use selStart to accomplish what I need. The operators love it now. Thanks anyway.