ACC2000: How to Open Multiple Instances of a Form

This article shows you how to use Visual Basic for Applications to open multiple instances of a form. Being able to open multiple instances of a form enables you to work on more than one record at once. For example, in an Order Entry application, you can start taking an order, pause and take a second order, and then return to the first order, without losing any data.

NOTE: This article explains a technique demonstrated in the sample file, FrmSmp00.mdb. For information about how to obtain this sample file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 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.

The syntax for opening multiple instances of a form includes a Set statement, the keyword New, and a form reference, as in the following example: Because you can't use the New keyword to create a new instance of a lightweight object, any form that you intend to use the New keyword with must have its HasModule property set to True.

When you open multiple instances of a form, the original instance is the only form object that is stored permanently in the database. The other instances are temporary and are removed from memory when you close them.

NOTE: When you close the original instance of a form, all other instances of the form are closed as well.

To open multiple instances of a form, follow these steps.

CAUTION: If you follow the steps in this example, you modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and follow these steps on a copy of the database.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Open the Customers form in Design view.
3. On the View menu, click Code to open the editor.
4. Type the following line in the Declarations section:

   Option Compare Database
   Option Explicit
   Dim frmX as Form
   					

5. Close the editor or press ALT-F11 to switch back to Access.
6. Add a command button to the Customers form and set the following properties:

      Command Button:
      --------------------------
      Name: cmdOpenNewCust
      Caption: Open Customers
      OnClick: [Event Procedure]
   					

7. Set the OnClick property of the command button to the following event procedure:

   Private Sub cmdOpenNewCust_Click()
      Set frmX = New Form_Customers
      frmX.setfocus
   End Sub
   					

8. Save and close the Customers form.
9. View the Customers form in Form view and click the command button, Open Customers.
   
   Note that a second instance of the Customers form opens.

For more information about using the New keyword with a Set statement, click Microsoft Access Help on the Help menu, type Set in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.