Access 2010: The Missing Manual

Deeper into Objects

There comes a point in every Access programmer’s life when you realize you’ve learned enough about the VB language to get by. From that point on, you spend most of your time learning about different objects, which is a much larger task.

Access has several dozen built-in objects which, taken together, make up what programmers call an object model. Along with the control and form objects you know so well, it has objects representing queries, projects, reports, smart tags, printers, and much more. You can’t cover all these objects in a single chapter. Even if you could, you’d find that many of them just don’t interest you. However, you need to know enough so that you can hunt down the features you need when you’re tackling a particularly sticky VB challenge.

Frequently Asked Questions: Launching Other Windows Programs

How do I open Word (or Excel, or Notepad, or Dance Dance Revolution)?

Visual Basic includes a function named Shell that lets you launch another program. To use the Shell function, you need to supply the complete path that points to the program file. Here’s an example that runs the Windows Calculator:

Shell "C:\Windows\Calc.exe"

When you use Shell, Windows launches the program you asked for, and your code keeps running. However, your code doesn’t have any way to actually interact with the program. You can’t force it to do something or find out if it’s been closed.

Shell seems like a convenient function, but it has a major problem. To use ...