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Dual Monitors And UserForms

Excel Tips
Excel has a long history, and it continues C ategory: General VBA / UserForms | [Item URL]
to evolve and change. C onsequently, the
tips provided here do not necessarily A UserForm object has a property named StartUpPosition. By default, this property is set to 1
apply to all versions of Excel. (CenterOwner), w hich means that it should appear in the center of Excel's w indow .
In particular, the user interface for Excel
This w orks fine, unless you have a dual-monitor system. In such a case, the UserForm is not
2007 (and later), is vastly different from
its predecessors. Therefore, the menu centered in the Excel w indow . On my system, UserForms alw ays display on the left side of the
commands listed in older tips, will not secondary monitor, even if Excel is maximized on the primary monitor.
correspond to the Excel 2007 (and later)
user interface. To force an Excel UserForm to be centered in Excel's w indow , use this code to display the
UserForm:
All Tips
List all tips, by category With UserForm1
Browse all tips
.StartUpPosition = 0
.Left = Application.Left + (0.5 * Application.Width) - (0.5 * .Width)
.Top = Application.Top + (0.5 * Application.Height) - (0.5 * .Height)
Browse Tips by Category
.Show
General End With
Formatting
Formulas I w as hoping this w ould be fixed in Excel 2010, but nothing has changed. I'm sure most of the
Charts & Graphics Microsoft programmers use at least tw o monitors, so they are obviously aw are of the problem.
Printing
General VBA
CommandBars & Menus
Pasting An Image To A UserForm Control
UserForms C ategory: Charts & Graphics / UserForms | [Item URL]
VBA Functions
VBA programmers are familiar w ith Excel's UserForms. The UserForm object, as w ell as many of
the ActiveX controls that are placed on a UserForm, can display an image -- the object's Picture
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How to set the Picture property

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Tips & Tricks
If you believe Excel's online help, you'll think that there are tw o w ays to set the Picture
property for an object:
At design time: Brow se for an image file, by clicking the "..." button in the Properties box
At run-time: Use VBA's LoadPicture function to retrieve an image file.
But there's another w ay. And it doesn't even require that the image is stored in a file. Here's
the trick:
1. Locate the image that you w ant to use, and copy it to the Clipboard.
2. Activate the VB Editor and select the object that w ill contain the image (i.e., a UserForm,

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 or a control that has a Picture property).
3. Make sure the Properties w indow is displayed (press F4 it it's not).
4. Click the Picture item. By default, this displays "(None)" as in the figure above.
5. Press Ctrl+V to paste the image on the Clipboard to the control.
More
Importantly, the picture that you paste to a control need not be stored in a file. Any picture
that can be copied to the Clipboard can be pasted to an object's Picture property. And this
includes charts stored in a w orksheet. The trick here is to copy the chart as a picture: Click the
chart, press Shift, and choose Copy Picture from Excel's Edit menu. Once copied, you can paste
the picture of the chart to your UserForm control.

W hen pasting a chart, it's important to understand that the picture is not linked to the original
chart. So if the chart changes, the picture w ill not change.

Displaying Help
C ategory: General VBA / UserForms | [Item URL]

A companion file is available: Click here to download

This tip describes a useful technique that lets you display a series of help topics in an Excel
w orkbook.

How it works
The technique described here uses a UserForm, and the UserForm has the follow ing controls
(see the Figure below ):
A DropDow n control (w hich displays the current help topic title)
A Label control that displays the help topic text
A Frame control. The label is inside of the frame to allow scrolling if all of the text isn't
visible.
Three buttons: Previous, Next, and Exit
The help topics are contained on a w orksheet, and the VBA code simply reads the text in the
w orksheet and transfers it to the UserForm. The user can select a help topic from the
DropDow n, or view the topics sequentially using the Previous and Next buttons.

You can easily adapt this technique to your ow n project:

1. Export the UserForm and Import it to your project

2. Set up the w orksheet w ith the help topics and help text
3. Create a simple macro to display the UserForm
Pros and Cons
This technique is very easy to set up, and requires no additional softw are or files. The VBA
code is contained in the UserForm, so no additional programming is necessary. The primary
disadvantage is that you cannot format the text that is displayed.

General Userform Tips

C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

One of the most useful features in Excel is the ability to create custom dialog boxes
(UserForms). Before embarking on this task, ask yourself if a custom dialog box is really
necessary. In some cases you may be able to use one of the follow ing options to get user

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input:
VBA's MsgBox function
VBA's InputBox function (alw ays returns a string)
Excel's InputBox function (you can specify the type of data returned)
Excel's GetOpenFilename method
Excel's GetSaveAsFilename method
Excel's FileDialog object (Excel 2002 only)
And, don't forget that your VBA code can display most of Excel's built-in dialog boxes. For
example, the follow ing subroutine displays the Move or Copy dialog (used to move or copy a
sheet):

Sub ShowMoveCopy()
Application.Dialogs(xlDialogWorkbookMove).Show
End Sub

W hen designing your userForm, a good rule of thumb is to make the dialog boxes look and
w ork like those that are built into Excel. If you're a beginner, you may find it instructive to try to
recreate a particular Excel dialog box. You may find a few situations in w hich a built-in dialog
box can't be recreated exactly.

Checklist
Before you unleash your UserForm, give it one final check using the follow ing checklist.

1. Are the controls aligned w ith each other?

2. Are similar controls the same size?
3. Are controls evenly spaced?
4. Is the dialog box too overw helming? If so, you may w ant to use a series of dialogs (like a
W izard), or use a MultiPage control.
5. Can every control be accessed w ith an accelerator key?
6. Are any of the accelerator keys duplicated?
7. Are the controls grouped logically (by function)?
8. Is the tab order set correctly? The user should be able to tab through the dialog box and
access the controls sequentially.
9. If the UserForm w ill be stored in an add-in, did you test it thoroughly after creating the
add-in? It's important to remember that an add-in w ill never be the active w orkbook.
10. W ill your VBA code take appropriate action if the UserForm is canceled, or if the user
presses Esc?
11. Are there any misspellings in the text? Excel's spelling checker doesn't w ork w ith
UserForms.
12. Does the UserForm have an appropriate caption?
13. If applicable, w ill your UserForm fit on the screen in low er screen resolutions?
14. If your UserForm w ill be used in multiple versions of Excel, have you tested the application
on all versions?
15. If you use help, is the help topic correct? And does it explain all the controls?

Selecting A Directory
C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

If your Excel application needs to prompt the user for a directory, you may have been
surprised to discover that there is no direct w ay to do this. You can use the GetOpenFileName
method to display a dialog that prompts for a file name, but there is no w ay to display a dialog
box that show s only directories.
In this document I present a function (named GetDirectory) that displays the dialog box show n
below , and returns a string that represents the selected directory. If the user clicks cancel, the
function returns an empty string.

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The GetDirectory function takes one argument, w hich is optional. This argument is a string that
w ill be displayed in the dialog box. If the argument is omitted, the dialog box displays Select a
folder as the message.

The GetDirectory function

The GetDirectory function is listed below . To use this function, copy the text and paste it to a
VBA module.

Option Explicit
Public Type BROWSEINFO
hOwner As Long
pidlRoot As Long
pszDisplayName As String
lpszTitle As String
ulFlags As Long
lpfn As Long
lParam As Long
iImage As Long
End Type

'32-bit API declarations

Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32.dll" _
Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" (ByVal pidl As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) _
As Long

Declare Function SHBrowseForFolder Lib "shell32.dll" _

Alias "SHBrowseForFolderA" (lpBrowseInfo As BROWSEINFO) As Long

Sub Test()
Dim Msg As String
Msg = "Please select a location for the backup."

MsgBox GetDirectory(Msg)
End Sub

Function GetDirectory(Optional Msg) As String

Dim bInfo As BROWSEINFO
Dim path As String
Dim r As Long, x As Long, pos As Integer

' Root folder = Desktop

bInfo.pidlRoot = 0&

' Title in the dialog

If IsMissing(Msg) Then
bInfo.lpszTitle = "Select a folder."
Else
bInfo.lpszTitle = Msg
End If

' Type of directory to return

bInfo.ulFlags = &H1

' Display the dialog

x = SHBrowseForFolder(bInfo)

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 ' Parse the result
path = Space$(512)
r = SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal x, ByVal path)
If r Then
pos = InStr(path, Chr$(0))
GetDirectory = Left(path, pos - 1)
Else
GetDirectory = ""
End If
End Function

Using the function

The simple subroutine listed below demonstrates how to use the GetDirectory function in your
code. Executing this subroutine displays the dialog box. W hen the user clicks OK or Cancel, the
MsgBox function displays the full path of the selected directory.

Sub Test()
Dim Msg As String
Msg = "Please select a location for the backup."
MsgBox GetDirectory(Msg)
End Sub

Specifying the starting directory

If you w ould like to be able to specify the starting directory, things get a lot more complicated.

NOTE: If you use Excel 2002 or later you can prompt the user to select a directory by using
the FileDialog object. The advantage is that you can specify a starting directory.

Displaying A Progress Indicator

C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

A companion file is available: Click here to download

A common question among Excel developers is, How can I use a custom dialog box to display the
progress of a lengthy macro?
This document describes how to create an attractive progress indicator w ith minimal effort.

Creating the UserForm

Follow the steps below to create the progress indicator UserForm.

1. Insert a new UserForm and change its Caption to Progress.

2. Add a Frame control and name it FrameProgress.
3. Add a Label control inside of the Frame and name it LabelProgress. Remove the Label's
caption, and make its background color red.
4. Add another label (option) to describe w hat's going on.
5. Adjust the form and controls so they look like this:

Creating the Event-handler subroutines

The trick here involves running a subroutine automatically w hen the dialog box is displayed.
Since the Initialize event occurs before the dialog box is actually show , you must use the
Activate event. Insert the follow ing subroutine in the Code w indow for the UserForm. This
subroutine simply calls the Main subroutine (stored in a VBA module) w hen the UserForm is
displayed.

Private Sub UserForm_activate()

Call Main
End Sub
The Main subroutine is listed below . This demo routine simply inserts random numbers into the
active w orksheet. As it does so, it changes the w idth of the Label control and displays the
percent completed in the Frame's caption. You w ill, of course, substitute your ow n subroutine.
And you'll need to figure out how to determine the progress complete.

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 Sub Main()
' Inserts random numbers on the active worksheet
Dim Counter As Integer
Dim RowMax As Integer, ColMax As Integer
Dim r As Integer, c As Integer
Dim PctDone As Single

If TypeName(ActiveSheet) <> "Worksheet" Then Exit Sub

Cells.Clear
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Counter = 1
RowMax = 100
ColMax = 25
For r = 1 To RowMax
For c = 1 To ColMax
Cells(r, c) = Int(Rnd * 1000)
Counter = Counter + 1
Next c
PctDone = Counter / (RowMax * ColMax)
With UserForm1
.FrameProgress.Caption = Format(PctDone, "0%")
.LabelProgress.Width = PctDone * (.FrameProgress.Width - 10)
End With
' The DoEvents statement is responsible for the form updating
DoEvents
Next r
Unload UserForm1
End Sub

Creating the start-up subroutine

All that's missing is a subroutine to display the dialog box. Enter the follow ing subroutine in a
VBA module.

Sub ShowDialog()
UserForm1.LabelProgress.Width = 0
UserForm1.Show
End Sub

How it works
W hen you execute the Show Dialog subroutine, the Label object's w idth is set to 0. Then the
Show method of the UserForm1 object displays the dialog box. W hen the dialog box is
displayed, its Activate event is triggered, w hich executes the Main subroutine. The Main
subroutine periodically updates the w idth of the Label. Notice the DoEvents statement.
W ithout this statement, changes to the Label are not visible. Before the subroutine ends, the
last statement unloads the UserForm object.

Caveat
This is definitely a slick technique, but you should be aw are that it may slow dow n your macro
a bit due to the extra overhead of updating the progress indicator. In many cases, how ever, it
is not even noticeable.

Importing And Exporting Userforms

C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

If you've w orked w ith UserForms, you've undoubtedly noticed that inserting a new UserForm
results in an empty dialog box. You might prefer to add a UserForm that already has some
controls on it (for example, an OK button and a Cancel button).

In this document I describe a simple technique that lets you create a new "default" UserForm
that contains these tw o buttons. The procedure can be adapted for other controls.

Creating the default UserForm

Follow these steps to create a UserForm.

1. Start w ith a blank w orkbook.

2. Press Alt+F11 to activate the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)
3. In the Project w indow , select the blank w orkbook
4. Select the Insert UserForm command. An empty UserForm is added to the project.
5. Use the Toolbox and add a CommandButton to the form.
6. Change the follow ing properties for the CommandButton:

Name: OKButton

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 Caption: OK
Default: True

7. Use the Toolbox and add a second CommandButton to the form.

8. Change the follow ing properties for this CommandButton:

Name: CancelButton
Caption: Cancel
Cancel: True

9. Double-click the Cancel button to activate the Code w indow for the UserForm.
10. Modify the CancelButton_Click subroutine as follow s:
Private Sub Cancel_Button_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub

Exporting the UserForm

The next step is to export this UserForm.

1. Make sure the UserForm is selected in the Project w indow .

2. Select the File Export File command.
3. Enter a name for the exported UserForm. Use a descriptive name, like NewDefaultForm
The preceding steps saved the UserForm and code to a file.

Importing the UserForm

W hen you need to add a new UserForm to a project, you can save time by importing the file
you saved.

1. Make sure your project is selected in the Project w indow .

2. Select the File Import File command.
3. Locate the file you exported in the previous section.
4. Use the Properties w indow to give the new form a descriptive name. This step is
necessary if you later decide to import the file again to add another UserForm.

Handle Multiple Userform Buttons With One Subroutine

C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

A companion file is available: Click here to download

W hen you create a UserForm, every control on the form must have its ow n event handler
procedure. For example, if a UserForm has 12 CommandButtons, you need 12 procedures to
handle the click events for those buttons.

This tip describes a w ay around this limitation by using a Class Module to define a new class.

Procedure
1. Create your UserForm as usual, and add several CommandButtons.
2. Insert a Class Module and enter the follow ing code. You w ill need to customize the
ButtonGroup_Click subroutine.
Public WithEvents ButtonGroup As CommandButton

Private Sub ButtonGroup_Click()

MsgBox "Hello from " & ButtonGroup.Name
End Sub

3. Insert a normal module and enter the follow ing code. In this code, I exclude a button
named OKButton from the "button group." Therefore, clicking the OK Button does not
execute the ButtonGroup_Click subroutine.
Option Explicit
Dim Buttons() As New Class1

Sub ShowDialog()
Dim ButtonCount As Integer
Dim ctl As Control

' Create the Button objects

ButtonCount = 0
For Each ctl In UserForm1.Controls
If TypeName(ctl) = "CommandButton" Then
If ctl.Name <> "OKButton" Then 'Skip the OKButton

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 ButtonCount = ButtonCount + 1
ReDim Preserve Buttons(1 To ButtonCount)
Set Buttons(ButtonCount).ButtonGroup = ctl
End If
End If
Next ctl
UserForm1.Show
End Sub

4. Execute the Show Dialog subroutine to display the UserForm. Clicking any of the
CommandButtons (except the OKButton) executes the ButtonGroup_Click subroutine.
Note: To use this technique w ith other types of controls, change the W ithEvents statement.
For example:

Public WithEvents LabelGroup As MSForms.Label

Notice that you must qualify the Label object because Excel also has an object named Label.
Also, you w ill need to make appropriate changes throughout the Show Dialog procedure.

Filling A Listbox With Unique Items

C ategory: UserForms | [Item URL]

A companion file is available: Click here to download

W hen you display a list of items in a ListBox, you generally don't w ant to show duplicate items.
This tip describes a clever w ay of filling a UserForm w ith unique items from a list. This
technique is adapted from a tip by J.G. Hussey, published in Visual Basic Programmer's Journal.
How it works
This tip uses a Collection object, and relies on the fact that VBA generates an error if you
attempt to add an item to a collection w hen the item already exists in the collection. The trick
is to build the collection by adding all items to it, and ignore the errors that may occur. The
result is a collection of unduplicated items.

Example
I created an example to demonstrate the technique. The items (105 of them) are stored in
Column A of a w orksheet. Many of these items are duplicated. The RemoveDuplicates
subroutine, listed below , builds a collection that consists of the unique items in the list. It then
transfers the items to a ListBox on a UserForm.

Listing
Follow ing is the VBA listing.

Option Explicit
' This example is based on a tip by J.G. Hussey,
' published in "Visual Basic Programmer's Journal"

Sub RemoveDuplicates()
Dim AllCells As Range, Cell As Range
Dim NoDupes As New Collection
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
Dim Swap1, Swap2, Item

' The items are in A1:A105

Set AllCells = Range("A1:A105")

' The next statement ignores the error caused

' by attempting to add a duplicate key to the collection.
' The duplicate is not added - which is just what we want!
On Error Resume Next
For Each Cell In AllCells
NoDupes.Add Cell.Value, CStr(Cell.Value)
' Note: the 2nd argument (key) for the Add method must be a string
Next Cell

' Resume normal error handling

On Error GoTo 0

' Sort the collection (optional)

For i = 1 To NoDupes.Count - 1
For j = i + 1 To NoDupes.Count
If NoDupes(i) > NoDupes(j) Then

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 Swap1 = NoDupes(i)
Swap2 = NoDupes(j)
NoDupes.Add Swap1, before:=j
NoDupes.Add Swap2, before:=i
NoDupes.Remove i + 1
NoDupes.Remove j + 1
End If
Next j
Next i

' Add the sorted, non-duplicated items to a ListBox

For Each Item In NoDupes
UserForm1.ListBox1.AddItem Item
Next Item

' Show the UserForm

UserForm1.Show
End Sub

Displaying A Menu Of Worksheets To Print

C ategory: Printing / UserForms | [Item URL]

This tip contains a VBA subroutine that displays a dialog box that contains the names of all
non-empty w orksheets in the active w orkbook. The names are displayed as checkboxes. The
user can select w hich sheets to print, and click OK. The macro then prints the selected
w orksheets.

This subroutine is rather unusual since it creates the dialog box on the fly, and then deletes it
after it is dismissed.

The code below prints the selected w orksheets, but this general technique can be adapted to
other situations in w hich you need the user to specify one or more sheets in a w orkbook.

Although this procedure uses an Excel 5/95 Dialog Sheet, it w ill also w ork w ith later versions of
Excel. By the w ay, this is a rare example of how using a Dialog Sheet is easier than using a
UserForm. Creating a UserForm on the fly is much more difficult, but it is possible.

Using the code

To try out the example, copy the code below and paste it to a VBA module (there is no need to
add a dialog sheet). Then execute the SelectSheets subroutine.

The SelectSheets subroutine

Option Explicit

Sub SelectSheets()
Dim i As Integer
Dim TopPos As Integer
Dim SheetCount As Integer
Dim PrintDlg As DialogSheet
Dim CurrentSheet As Worksheet
Dim cb As CheckBox
Application.ScreenUpdating = False

' Check for protected workbook

If ActiveWorkbook.ProtectStructure Then
MsgBox "Workbook is protected.", vbCritical
Exit Sub
End If

' Add a temporary dialog sheet

Set CurrentSheet = ActiveSheet
Set PrintDlg = ActiveWorkbook.DialogSheets.Add

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 SheetCount = 0

' Add the checkboxes

TopPos = 40
For i = 1 To ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Count
Set CurrentSheet = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(i)
' Skip empty sheets and hidden sheets
If Application.CountA(CurrentSheet.Cells) <> 0 And _
CurrentSheet.Visible Then
SheetCount = SheetCount + 1
PrintDlg.CheckBoxes.Add 78, TopPos, 150, 16.5
PrintDlg.CheckBoxes(SheetCount).Text = _
CurrentSheet.Name
TopPos = TopPos + 13
End If
Next i

' Move the OK and Cancel buttons

PrintDlg.Buttons.Left = 240

' Set dialog height, width, and caption

With PrintDlg.DialogFrame
.Height = Application.Max _
(68, PrintDlg.DialogFrame.Top + TopPos - 34)
.Width = 230
.Caption = "Select sheets to print"

End With

' Change tab order of OK and Cancel buttons

' so the 1st option button will have the focus
PrintDlg.Buttons("Button 2").BringToFront
PrintDlg.Buttons("Button 3").BringToFront

' Display the dialog box

CurrentSheet.Activate
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
If SheetCount <> 0 Then
If PrintDlg.Show Then
For Each cb In PrintDlg.CheckBoxes
If cb.Value = xlOn Then
Worksheets(cb.Caption).Activate
ActiveSheet.PrintOut
' ActiveSheet.PrintPreview 'for debugging

End If
Next cb
End If
Else
MsgBox "All worksheets are empty."
End If

' Delete temporary dialog sheet (without a warning)

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
PrintDlg.Delete

' Reactivate original sheet

CurrentSheet.Activate
End Sub
NOTE: Aaron Blood suggested the follow ing modification, w hich prints the selected sheets as
a single print job. This allow s the sheet to be printed w ith continuous page numbers.

If PrintDlg.Show Then
For Each cb In PrintDlg.CheckBoxes
If cb.Value = xlOn Then
Worksheets(cb.Caption).Select Replace:=False
End If
Next cb
ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.PrintOut copies:=1
ActiveSheet.Select
End If

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