ACC: Changing Application Title Using Visual Basic (95/97)

• Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

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

This article describes how you can programmatically change the title bar text, also referred to as the Application Title, in Microsoft Access version 7.0 and 97 using Visual Basic for Applications.

This article assumes that you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information about Visual Basic for Applications, please refer to your version of the "Building Applications with Microsoft Access" manual.

MORE INFORMATION

Unless you set the Application Title in the Startup dialog box to something different for your database, the default text that appears in the title bar is "Microsoft Access."

You can manually change the Application Title property of a database by clicking Startup on the Tools menu, and then typing a new name in the Application Title box. Then, whenever you open the database, the title bar text displays the name you typed.

You can also programmatically change the Application Title setting every time the database opens by using Visual Basic. As an example, the following steps demonstrate how to set the Application Title to the name of the current database and the name of the current user in the database.

1. Create a module and type the following procedures:

         Function SetApplicationTitle(ByVal MyTitle As String)
            If SetStartupProperty("AppTitle", dbText, MyTitle) Then
               Application.RefreshTitleBar
            Else
               Msgbox "ERROR: Could not set Application Title"
            End If
         End Function
   
         Function SetStartupProperty(prpName As String, _
               prpType As Variant, prpValue As Variant) As Integer
            Dim DB As DATABASE, PRP As Property, WS As Workspace
            Const ERROR_PROPNOTFOUND = 3270
   
            Set DB = CurrentDb()
   
            ' Set the startup property value.
            On Error GoTo Err_SetStartupProperty
            DB.Properties(prpName) = prpValue
            SetStartupProperty = True
   
         Bye_SetStartupProperty:
            Exit Function
   
         Err_SetStartupProperty:
            Select Case Err
            ' If the property does not exist, create it and try again.
            Case ERROR_PROPNOTFOUND
               Set PRP = DB.CreateProperty(prpName, prpType, prpValue)
               DB.Properties.Append PRP
               Resume
            Case Else
               SetStartupProperty = False
               Resume Bye_SetStartupProperty
            End Select
         End Function
   
         Function CurrentMDB() As String
            Dim i As Integer, FullPath As String
            FullPath = CurrentDb.Name
            ' Search backward in string for back slash character.
            For i = Len(FullPath) To 1 Step -1
               ' Return all characters to the right of the back slash.
               If Mid(FullPath, i, 1) = "\" Then
                  CurrentMDB = Mid(FullPath, i + 1)
                  Exit Function
               End If
            Next i
         End Function
   
   

2. Create the following macro and save it as AutoExec:

         Macro Name  Action
         -------------------
         AutoExec    Runcode
   
         AutoExec Actions
         ---------------------------------------------------------------
         RunCode
            Function Name: =SetApplicationTitle(CurrentMDB() & " - " & _
                 CurrentUser)
   
      NOTE: In the Function Name setting above, the underscore (_) at the end
      of the line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the
      underscore from the end of the line when typing the Function Name
      setting.
   
   

REFERENCES

For more information about changing the application title bar, search for "apptitle," and then "AppTitle Property" using the Microsoft Access 97 Help Index.

Keywords          : kbprg PgmHowTo
Version           : 7.0 97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Hardware          : x86
Issue type        : kbhowto