ACC97: DoMenuItem Method Fails in a Modal Pop-up Form

• Microsoft Access 97

SYMPTOMS

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

When you use the DoMenuItem method in a form whose PopUp and Modal properties are set to Yes, the action called by the DoMenuItem method may fail silently or return the following error message:

The command or action <action> isn't available now.

RESOLUTION

If you need to set the Modal and PopUp properties of a form to Yes, you can replace the DoMenuItem method with the equivalent RunCommand method. However, some DoMenuItem action commands do not have equivalent RunCommand actions. For more information, search the Help Index for "DoMenuItem action" and view the topic "DoMenuItem Action Commands Not Available with the RunCommand Action."

The following steps demonstrate how to change actions of the DoMenuItem method to the corresponding actions of the RunCommand method:

1. Follow steps 1 through 12 in the "Steps to Reproduce Problem" section later in this article.



2. Open the frmDoMenuTest form in Design View.



3. Right-click the Delete Record button; then click Build Event on the shortcut menu. Note the Visual Basic for Applications code created by the Command Bar wizard:




      Private Sub Command10_Click()
         On Error GoTo Err_Command10_Click

          DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 8, , acMenuVer70
          DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 6, , acMenuVer70

      Exit_Command10_Click:
         Exit Sub

      Err_Command10_Click:
         MsgBox Err.Description
         Resume Exit_Command10_Click

      End Sub 

4. Type an apostrophe (') at the beginning of the following lines

   
         DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 8, , acMenuVer70
         DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 6, , acMenuVer70 

   
   so that they appear as follows:
   

   
         'DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 8, , acMenuVer70
         'DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 6, , acMenuVer70 

   
   This changes the lines of code so that they become comments, which are not executed.



5. Immediately after the lines that you changed to comments in step 4, type the following lines:




      DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdSelectRecord
      DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdDeleteRecord 

6. Close the Module window and save the form.



7. On the View menu, click Form View.



8. Click the Delete Record button. Note that you are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the record.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Access 97.

MORE INFORMATION

The Visual Basic for Applications code generated by the Command Button wizard often uses the DoMenuItem method.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. Start Microsoft Access 97 and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.



2. In the Database window, click the Tables tab, and select the Order Details table.



3. On the Insert menu, click AutoForm. Save the form as frmDoMenuTest.



4. On the View menu, click Design View.



5. If the toolbox is not already visible, click Toolbox on the View menu.



6. Make sure that the Control Wizard button is pressed in; the button face of the Control Wizard button is a picture of a wand.



7. Click the command button tool in the toolbox and add a command button to the detail section of the form.



8. On the first screen of the Command Button Wizard, select Record Operations in the Categories list and Delete Record in the Actions list. Click Finish.



9. On the Edit menu, click Select Form.



10. On the View menu, click Properties, and then click the Other tab. Set the PopUp property and the Modal property of the form to Yes.



11. Save and close the frmDoMenuTest form.



12. Open the frmDoMenuTest form in Form view and click the Delete Record button. Note that the action fails silently and the current record is not deleted.

REFERENCES

For more information about converting DoMenuItem actions to RunCommand actions, search the Help Index for "DoMenuItem method."

Additional query words: pra

Keywords          : FmsButb MdlAdrec WzProb 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug 

Last Reviewed: May 13, 1999