The CommandBars collection in Microsoft Access exposes all menu bars,
toolbars, and shortcut menus in your application to Visual Basic for
Applications so you can manipulate them programmatically. By using the
properties and methods of the CommandBars collection in your application,
you can manipulate and customize both built-in and custom command bars.
NOTE: If you use Windows application programming interface (API) procedures
to manipulate menus in your Microsoft Access 2.0 or 7.0 database, you must
modify the code to use the CommandBars object model in Visual Basic for
Applications when you convert your database to Access 2000. Windows
API calls do not work with Microsoft Access 2000 menus, toolbars, or
shortcut menus.
Each command bar, whether it is a menu bar, a toolbar, or a shortcut menu,
consists of a collection of CommandBarControl objects. You can create three
types of CommandBarControls on a command bar, each with its own methods and
properties:
- CommandBarButton represents a button control on a command bar, which
can display text, an icon, or both together.
- CommandBarComboBox represents a custom edit box, drop-down list box, or combo box on a command bar.
- CommandBarPopup represents a control on a command bar that displays
another menu when you click it; the menu that appears is another command
bar associated with the popup control.
You refer to a control on a command bar by its Caption property or Index
number. For example, if a control on the "Test" command bar has the caption
"ClickMe" and an index value of 1, then the following two statements both
refer to the same control:
CommandBars("Test").Controls("ClickMe")
CommandBars("Test").Controls(1)
Example
The following example shows you how to disable or enable items on a menu
bar or toolbar based on events in your application.
NOTE: For this example to work in your own database, make sure that your database has a reference to the Microsoft Office 9.0 Object Library. Northwind.mdb has this reference set by default, but your database may not.
To set a reference to the Microsoft Office 9.0 Object Library, click References on the Tools menu in the Visual Basic Editor, and then click to select the Microsoft Office 9.0 Object Library check box.
- Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
- Create a new form not based on any table or query in Design view, and
save it as frmChangeBars.
- Enable the Control Wizards button on the Toolbox toolbar, and then add an option group control to the detail section of the form.
- In the "What label do you want for each option?" dialog box, type
the following four labels, each in its own row: Dim View Menu, Dim
Print Button, Dim New Database, and Enable All. Click Next.
- In the "Do you want one option to be the default choice?" dialog
box, click "No, I don't want a default," and then click Next.
- In the "What value do you want to assign to each option?" dialog
box, click Finish.
- Set the Name property of the option group control to CommandBarTest, and set the AfterUpdate property to the following event procedure:
Private Sub CommandBarTest_AfterUpdate()
Dim CBarMenu as CommandBar, CBarTool as CommandBar
Dim CBarCtl as CommandBarPopup
' Set the CommandBar objects to the menu bar and toolbar that
' display when you open a form in Form view.
Set CBarMenu = CommandBars("NorthwindCustomMenuBar")
Set CBarTool = CommandBars("Form View")
' Because the File menu is a Popup control, assign it to an object
' variable so you can manipulate its CommandBar object.
Set CBarCtl = CBarMenu.Controls("File")
' Program what happens when you click an option.
Select Case Me!CommandBarTest
' You clicked Dim View Menu.
Case 1
CBarMenu.Controls("View").Enabled = False
' You clicked Dim Print Button.
Case 2
CBarTool.Controls("Print...").Enabled = False
' You clicked Dim New Database.
Case 3
CBarCtl.CommandBar.Controls("New...").Enabled = _
False
' You clicked Enable All.
Case 4
CBarMenu.Controls("View").Enabled = True
CBarTool.Controls("Print...").Enabled = True
CBarCtl.CommandBar.Controls("New...").Enabled = _
True
End Select
End Sub
- Open the frmChangeBars form in Form view.
- Click Dim View Menu and note that the View menu at the top of your
screen dims.
- Click Dim Print Button and note that the Print button on the Form View
toolbar dims.
- Click Dim New Database and note that the New Database selection on the
File menu dims.
- Click Enable All to re-enable all three controls.