ACC2: How to Prompt User to Save Changes to Record in Form

ID: Q181820


The information in this article applies to:


SUMMARY

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding and interoperability skills.

When you move to the next record or close a Microsoft Access form, Microsoft Access automatically saves any changes that you have made to the current record. This article demonstrates how to use a BeforeUpdate event procedure that prompts you to verify the save operation before continuing.


MORE INFORMATION

CAUTION: Following the steps in this example will modify the sample database NWIND.MDB. You may want to back up the NWIND.MDB file and perform these steps on a copy of the database.

This example uses the BeforeUpdate event procedure in the Customers form to prompt the user to confirm changes before saving.

  1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database NWIND.MDB.


  2. In the Database window, click the Form tab and select the Customers form. Then click Design.


  3. On the View menu, click Properties and select Event Properties from the combo box at the top of the dialog box.


  4. Click the BeforeUpdate property box, and then click the Build (...) button.


  5. In the Choose Builder dialog box, click Code Builder. Click OK.


  6. Set the BeforeUpdate property of the form to the following event procedure.

    NOTE: In the following sample statements, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating these statements.
    
          Sub Form_BeforeUpdate (Cancel As Integer)
             ' This procedure checks to see if the data on the form has
             ' changed. If the data has changed, the procedure prompts the
             ' user to continue the save operation or cancel it. Then the
             ' action that triggered the BeforeUpdate event is completed.
    
             On Error GoTo Err_BeforeUpdate
    
             ' The Dirty property is True if the record has been changed.
             If Me.Dirty Then
                ' Prompt to confirm the save operation.
                If MsgBox("Do you want to save?", 4 + 32, _
                      "Save Record") = 7 Then
                   Cancel = True
                   SendKeys "{ESC}"
                End If
             End If
    
          Exit_BeforeUpdate:
             Exit Sub
    
          Err_BeforeUpdate:
             MsgBox CStr(Err) & " " & Error(Err)
             Resume Exit_BeforeUpdate
    
          End Sub 


  7. On the Run menu, click Compile Loaded Modules.


  8. If no errors occur, save the form.


When you make a change to a record, and then you either move to a different record or close the form, you are prompted to confirm that you want to save the current record. If you choose No, the record is reset and the operation continues as normal.


REFERENCES

For more information about how to prompt a user to save a record in Microsoft Access 7.0 or 97, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q175911 ACC: How to Prompt User to Save Changes to Record in Form(95/97)

For more information about undoing the current record in the BeforeUpdate event, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q97525 ACC: UndoCurrentRecord in BeforeUpdate Property Causes Error

Additional query words: inf saving ask asking


Keywords          : FmsEvnt PgmPrcs 
Version           : WINDOWS:2.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto 

Last Reviewed: July 20, 1999