Access TreeView-ListView Basics from Database Journal

Here's a treeview article I haven't run across before: Access TreeView-ListView Basics from Database Journal walks the reader through creation of a form with a treeview and a listview.

It doesn't have a detailed explanation of how it works, but it does include a downloadable working example, and the zip file for the example includes the elusive help file that covers the treeview and listview controls- very handy! The code uses the "one pass" approach to loading the treeview- a single query is used that brings in all books, and whenever a new bookstore is encountered that node is added.

List of programming resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Take a look at this article from Microsoft. They've pulled together a whole pile of resources that will be useful for the VBA programmer. If you're getting started with VBA, or are just looking for more VBA references and resources, this looks like a great page to check out.

Quote:

This article lists some of the resources that are available to help you learn Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications programming. The article contains the following categories:

• Online Help
• The Object Browser
• Microsoft Press and third-party reference and learning materials
• Microsoft Knowledge Base on the World Wide Web
• Helpful Knowledge Base articles
• Internet newsgroups
• Other Web resources

Microsoft Controls Reference

Here's a link to keep handy: ActiveX Controls Reference on MSDN. It's written for VB and Visual Studio, rather than for VBA and Access, but the differences between the two are not important for this purpose. At least in my environment there's no help loaded for ActiveX controls such as Treeview, Listview, and DateTimePicker, so I use this reference to the properties, methods and events of these controls.

How do I let my user pick a date from a calendar?

There are tons of ways to do this- some use ActiveX controls, some do not. Some have more functionality than others.
For a simple approach, the DateTimePicker ActiveX control is probably your best bet. The only disadvantage is that it's an ActiveX control, which can be difficult to manage if you have to install in a variety of environments. Using the DateTimePicker is really just like using a combo box. Use it bound or unbound. Just like a combo box, when the user clicks the arrow the control shows the list of choices- in this case a calendar where the user can click on a date.

Some Microsoft links:

• A walkthough of using the Access Calendar Control
• A reference for the DateTimePicker ActiveX control
• A reference for the ActiveX MonthView control

Some non-Microsoft web links:

• A nice round-up on UtterAccess.com of several good solutions
• A Pop-up Calendar for your Access Forms (Tutorial using the Access Calendar Control)

Another Treeview Reference from Microsoft

I stumbled across this post on MSDN this morning. It gives a great overview of the treeview control that I hadn't seen before.

See also: other treeview posts on my blog.

Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide

Quote:
The Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide describes how to use the applications and components in Microsoft Office 2000 to build custom solutions. This guide is the definitive resource for developers who are creating custom solutions based on Office applications. From the overall design of your solution to the nitty-gritty details of implementing it, this book tells you what you need to know to get things done quickly and productively.

This is a great resource for Office VBA developers. Among other valuable chapters it includes one of the only references I have been able to find for custom classes and objects.

Download the Automation Help File from Microsoft

Automation is the term used to describe one application using another to do its work- for instance Access using Excel to create a new spreadhseet and to put data from a into the cells of the worksheet. Automation is tremendously powerful, but can seem like black magic to the "uninitiated".

Microsoft provides references which help you get started with automation using Microsoft Office products. They are distributed as compiled help files. The most recent version of the help file is here.

Getting Started with Treeviews: Posts from Microsoft

Treeviews are really powerful interface components. I love building with them. They aren't easy to get started with, though, for a few reasons: they can't be bound to data so you have to fill them using VBA code, they're not part of Access and so aren't covered in the Access help (they're ActiveX controls), and they are often used with complex data, such as hierarchical relationships.

I started with some Micsrosoft articles and found that was all I needed to build my first few treeviews. Here are the two I used plus one more I've found since that looks like it would have helped me a lot.

ACC97: Migrating from Data Outline Control to TreeView Control
How to fill a Treeview control recursively in Access 2000
How to use TreeView control Drag-and-Drop capabilities in Access 2000

As well as beginners' docs being a little scarce, the reference material can be hard to come by as well. Here's a link to the Treeview reference in the VB6 section of Microsoft's site.

See also: other treeview posts on my blog.

Office 2003 VBA References

Here are a couple of links to a chunk of 2003 Office and Access VBA stuff. A lot of it is just what changed in 2003, vs. a comprehensive reference, but there seem to be some useful sections there. I seem to frequently find and then subsequently loose the comprehensive reference stuff from Microsoft that I need when "I don't know exactly what I'm looking for yet." These links held a lot of promise when I first found them, but their lustre has faded somewhat.

• Office 2003 VBA Language reference
• Downloadable Office Access 2003 VBA Reference

Programming the FileSystemObject

The FileSystemObject is provided to interact with files and folders from VBA and from Windows Scripts. This reference documentation from Microsoft provides details on some of its functions.