Knowledge Base

WD98: How to Create and Display a Custom Dialog Box

Article ID: 182426

Article Last Modified on 6/17/2005

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q182426

SUMMARY

This article contains step by step instructions for creating and displaying a Visual Basic for Applications custom dialog box (User Form).

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.

Creating the User Form

The following example creates a user form with a TextBox control and two CommandButton controls (an "OK" button and a "Cancel" button).

Create the form using the following steps:

On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
In the Visual Basic project window, click Normal.

By clicking Normal, the form will be available to all documents. To create the user form in a custom template, make sure the template is currently open and select the template project name instead of Normal. For example, if the custom template name is "My Template," in the Visual Basic project window select "TemplateProject(My Template)." The user form will be available only when the custom template is open, available as an add-in, or attached to an open document.
On the Insert menu, click UserForm.
Click the TextBox control on the Toolbox toolbar, and then click the form.

The TextBox control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location.
Click the CommandButton control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form.

The CommandButton control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location.

Repeat this step to add a second CommandButton control.
Select the first command button control and then click Code on the View menu.
In the Code window, type Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text, so that your code looks like this:
```
      Private Sub CommandButton1_Click ()
         Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text
      End sub
                        
```
NOTE: When you click this button on the form, the contents of the text box is inserted into the active document at the location of the insertion point.
On the View menu, click Object to return to the form.
Select the second command button control and then click Code on the View menu.
In the Code window, type End, so that your code looks like this:
```
      Private Sub CommandButton2_Click ()
         End
      End sub
                        
```
When you click this button after you click the first command button, the form is closed. If you click this button instead of the first command button, the form is canceled.
On the File menu, click Save Normal.

Displaying the Form

To display the form, switch to Word, and then do the following:

On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
In the Macro Name box, type FillInForm and then click Create.

In the Code window, type UserForm1.Show, so that your code looks like this:

     Sub FillInForm()
        UserForm1.Show
     End Sub

Save and close the macro.
Close the Visual Basic Editor.
You can now run the macro from Word to display the form.

If you want default text to appear in the text box, create an "initialize" event for the UserForm object. To do this, use the following steps:

Double-click the form.
From the Object list, select UserForm.
From the Procedure list, select Initialize.

In the Code window, type the following code

      Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
         TextBox1.Text = "<default text>"
      End Sub

where <default text> is the text you want to appear in the text box when the form appears.

For more information about User Forms, click the Office Assistant while in the Visual Basic Editor, type UserForm, click Search, and then click to view "UserForm Object."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176476 OFF: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

181058 OFF98: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vb vba vbe

Keywords: kbhowto kbmacroexample kbprogramming kbdtacode kbcode KB182426

Microsoft KB Archive/182426

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