Userform Properties not available in MSForms.Userform

[Wessel]

SunflowerWhen I define an object as MSForms.Userform, it appears as if it is
not the same object as an Userform in the Userforms collection. Properties
like Name and Width also does not seem to be available with the
MSForms.Userform type. Any ideas why this is so, and how to overcome the
limitation if I wanted to use e.g. the Name property of a Userform, where it
is required to define the type as a Userform?

[Chip Pearson]

Wessel,

A MSForms.Userform object exposes only a very limited set of properties.
Moreover, the UserForms collection only includes forms that have been loaded,
not all the forms that exist in a project.

The actual form that you access in code (e.g., UserForm1.Caption = "Test") is an
instance of the class that defines that form, e.g. UserForm1. VBA compiles code
that is essentially the same as

Dim UserForm1 As New UserForm1

The 'New' keyword declare the variable as an 'auto-instancing' variable, and
this tells VBA to emit code like

Set UserForm1 = New UserForm1

before any reference in code to 'UserForm1'. Therefore, your code

Debug.Print UserForm1.Name

actually is compiled as

If UserForm1 Is Nothing Then
Set UserForm1 = New UserForm1
End If
Debug.Print UserForm1.Name

When you use "UserForm1" in your code, you are actually dealing with the
variable UserForm1 (on the left side of the 'As') rather than the class
UserForm1 (on the right side of the 'As').

Properties such as Name and Width are properties of the class (and variable)
UserForm1, not of the UserForm variable that you access via the UserForms
collection object.

> where it is required to define the type as a Userform?

If you declare the index variable used to iterate through UserForms as a generic
object, rather than As MSForms.UserForm, you can reference all of the properties
you expect. For example,

Dim UF As msforms.UserForm
Dim Obj As Object

Load UserForm1
Load UserForm2

For Each Obj In UserForms
Debug.Print Obj.Caption, Obj.Width
Next Obj

For Each UF In UserForms
Debug.Print UF.Caption
Next UF

Here, the declaration 'As Object' gives you access what you expect, whereas 'As
MSForms.UserForm' does not. The difference is that they are referencing
different things at runtime.

In what circumstances do you require the variable to be declared As UserForm?
You may be able, depending on the circumstances, to declare the variable 'As
Object'. Then, you can with the form itself, to use the 'Me' reference to pass
a reference of the actual (running) Userform to another procedure. E.g.,

[in a standard code module]
Function Test(Obj As Object) As String
Test = Obj.Caption
End Function

[in a userform's code module]
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
MsgBox Test(Me)
End Sub

I think that the UserForm object actually refers to the client area inside what
you view as a form -- in other words, the title bar (where the caption and the
'X' button reside) is not part of the UserForm object itself. For example, the
Caption property of the MSForms.Userform object is not the same as the Caption
of the (loaded) user form. To see the difference, place two command button on a
user form, and then use the following code.

[in a standard code module]
Sub SetCaption(Obj As MSForms.UserForm)
Obj.Caption = "Some Text"
End Sub
Sub SetCaption2(Obj As Object)
Obj.Caption = "Some Text"
End Sub

[in a userform's code module]
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
SetCaption Me
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
SetCaption2 Me
End Sub

You'll notice that the Caption property refers to different things depending on
how the argument to declared in the procedure.

I hope this had shed some light on the issue, and not made things more
confusing.

--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com ch...@cpearson.com

"Wessel" <wva...@qatar.net.qa> wrote in message
news:#MqF0bI3BHA.2208@tkmsftngp05...

[Wessel Van Wyk]

Hi Chip,

Thanks, your reply did shed a lot of light on the subject. The reason
why I originally wanted to specify MSForms.Userform, was to have in a
class module:
"Public WithEvents BaseForm as MSForms.Userform", where I wanted to
assign certain default actions to new UserForms added as VBComponents.
Your reply has however shown that it is not necessary to do this through
code, since I could use the class defined by UserForm1 (after I also
realized that events also differ - e.g. Layout instead of Resize).

There is still plenty that I do not understand - e.g. if I have defined
a prodecure requiring a parameter of MSForms.Userform, why do I not get
an error when passing Userform1 (or any other member of Userforms) as
parameter to this procedure?
e.g. Project containing Userform1

Example Module 1:

Sub Proc1(mForm as MSForms.Userform)
MsgBox (uForm.Caption)
End Sub

Sub Main
Call Proc1(UserForm1) ' I would have expected
' a "ByRef argument type mismatch" here
End Sub

In this example, since class UserForm1 is not the same as
MSForms.Userform, I would have expected an error when passing a
parameter type other than MSForms.UserForm to Sub Proc1?

Thanks again for the speedy detailed reply - it helped me a lot.

Wessel

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