August 2012 ~ LEARN MS-ACCESS TIPS AND TRICKS

Introduction.

Allow data entry or editing for a certain period of time otherwise lock the form for data view alone. The reason to do this may be time-bound work schedules or some other reason. Request for a solution to this kind of action was raised in a Microsoft Access Discussion Forum on the web and I thought I will give it a try and write a program to enable the form for Data Entry/Edit between 06:00 to 07:00 Hours, 11:00 to 13:00 Hours and 17:00 to 19:00 Hours otherwise disable the form and allow only data view mode.

The Data Entry Control Function.

The function written for this task is given below, copy it into the Standard Module:

Public Function Data_Entry(ByVal frmName As String)
Dim T1S, T1E, T2S, T2E, T3S, T3E
Dim frm As Form

Set frm = Forms(frmName)

D = Date
T1S = TimeValue("06:00:00")
T1E = TimeValue("07:00:00")

T2S = TimeValue("11:00:00")
T2E = TimeValue("13:00:00")

T3S = TimeValue("17:00:00")
T3E = TimeValue("19:00:00")

Select Case time
      Case T1S To T1E, T2S To T2E, T3S To T3E
          With frm
            If .AllowAdditions = False Then
               .AllowAdditions = True
               .AllowEdits = True
               .lblMsg.Visible = False
'change .subFrmName to match the control (window) name of the sub-form
               .subFrmName.Enabled = True
            End If
          End With
          frm.Refresh
      Case Else
          With frm
            If .AllowAdditions = True Then
                .AllowAdditions = False
                .AllowEdits = False
                .lblMsg.Visible = True
 'change the next line to set focus on any field on the main form
                .EmployeeID.SetFocus
'change .subFrmName to match the control (window) name of the sub-form
                .subFrmName.Enabled = False
            End If
          End With
          frm.Refresh
End Select

Set frm = Nothing
End Function

NB: You must make changes wherever applicable to point the code to correct control names on your Form, which I have marked with comments.

Some Changes to the Form.

Open your Form in Design View.
Add a Label control on the main Form where you want to display 'Entry not allowed', change the Name property value to lblMsg, and write the message in the Caption property.
Display the Form Property Sheet.
Set Timer Interval value to 60000 (i.e. 1 minute). The Form’s current mode is checked at a one-minute interval and applies changes automatically. You may increase the time interval by adding 1000 to the above value for each second increase.
Select the On-Timer() Event, select [Event Procedure] from the drop-down control and click on the build ( . . .) Button to open the VBA module.
Copy and Paste the following lines of Code replacing the existing two lines displayed there:

Code:
```
Private Sub Form_Timer()
   Data_Entry Me.Name
End Sub
```
Save and Close the Form.

Tracking the Time for Form Mode Change.

The Timer setting will run the above program and will check every minute, whether the current time falls within the time slots given in the program, if true, then the Main-form and a Sub-Form on the main form will be enabled for Editing/Entry purposes, otherwise, they will be locked.

When you open the Form there will be a one-minute delay before Access starts checking. You may call the Data_Entry() function from the Form_Current() event procedure to start checking immediately after opening to avoid the one-minute initial delay.

Earlier Post Link References:

Introduction.

You spent several hours preparing the data for your Line-Chart. Designed the Line-Chart on a Report with Title, Data Labels, and Legends, and it looks nice except for one big problem with the Profit/Loss line. The Line doesn’t show up on the graph except for two marker points on Qrtr1 and Qrtr3 value points and nothing shows on Qrtr2 and Qrtr4 value locations.

Check the sample Graph Chart Image shown below with the points marked with yellow color on the Profit/Loss line:

Take a look at the following Graph Chart Image with the Source Table displayed:

Tracking Down the Real Issue.

Did you notice where the actual problem is? In the Profit/Loss row, in Qrtr2 and Qrtr4 cells have Null values in the table resulting in the Graph Chart ignoring these cell values and not connecting other values with lines, without breaks in between. While preparing data (source Table/Query) for the Graph Chart ensure that none of the cells end up with a Null value. If there are Cells with Null values then fill them up with Zeroes.

The corrected Chart Table, filled with zero values in empty cells resulted in connecting the points with the line correctly on the Graph Chart image shown above.

You can modify the Chart Source Value by modifying the Row Source Property SQL value, without directly updating zeroes on the Source Table.

Modifying the Chart Data Source Query.

Open the Report with the Graph Chart in Design View.
Click on the Chart’s outer frame to select it.
Display the Property Sheet.
Click on the build (. . .) button on the Row Source Property to open the Graph Chart Source Query in Design View.

Modify the Query Columns to get the SQL modified as shown below:

SELECT Chart.Desc, Val(nz([qrtr1],0)) AS [Qrtr-1], 
  Val(nz([qrtr2],0)) AS [Qrtr-2],
  Val(nz([qrtr3],0)) AS [Qrtr-3],
  Val(nz([qrtr4],0)) AS [Qrtr-4] FROM Chart;