I need to create labels and buttons dynamically and then add them to a frame within a userform. How do I do this? Seems like it should be easier than it really is.
The following code demonstrates how you can dynamically populate a frame in a userform with controls...
In the form I used I had a frame control named Frame1, so in the UserForm_Initialize you call Frame1.Controls.Add to embed a control in the frame. You can set the control which gets returned to a WithEvents control variable that you have defined in the UserForm code module so you can respond to events on whatever controls you want...
So with this method you need to pre-write any event code you want for any controls you create...
Also note that you can position and size your controls even if the top, left, width, and height properties don't necessarily come up in intellisense...
Private WithEvents Cmd As MSForms.CommandButton
Private WithEvents Lbl As MSForms.Label
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Set Lbl = Frame1.Controls.Add("Forms.Label.1", "lbl1")
Lbl.Caption = "Foo"
Set Cmd = Frame1.Controls.Add("Forms.CommandButton.1", "cmd1")
End Sub
Private Sub Cmd_Click()
Cmd.Top = Cmd.Top + 5
End Sub
Private Sub Lbl_Click()
Lbl.Top = Lbl.Top + 5
End Sub
Add
MethodTo add controls to a userform or a frame you use the add method.
SetControl = object.Add(ProgID [, Name [, Visible ]] )
The first argument is going to reference what type of control you want to add, and it is ProgID
which is defined as
Programmatic identifier. A text string with no spaces that identifies an object class. The standard syntax for a ProgID is ... A ProgID is mapped to a class identifier (CLSID).
To make this process easier, let's use and enum to help manage the various controls.
' List of all the MSForms Controls.
Public Enum MSFormControls
CheckBox
ComboBox
CommandButton
Frame
Image
Label
ListBox
MultiPage
OptionButton
ScrollBar
SpinButton
TabStrip
TextBox
ToggleButton
End Enum
With this enum, we can now easily create a function to get the ProgID string.
' Gets the ProgID for each individual control. Used to create controls using `Object.add` method.
' @see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/add-method-microsoft-forms
Public Function GetMSFormsProgID(control As MSFormControls) As String
Select Case control
Case MSFormControls.CheckBox: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.CheckBox.1"
Case MSFormControls.ComboBox: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.ComboBox.1"
Case MSFormControls.CommandButton: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.CommandButton.1"
Case MSFormControls.Frame: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.Frame.1"
Case MSFormControls.Image: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.Image.1"
Case MSFormControls.Label: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.Label.1"
Case MSFormControls.ListBox: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.ListBox.1"
Case MSFormControls.MultiPage: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.MultiPage.1"
Case MSFormControls.OptionButton: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.OptionButton.1"
Case MSFormControls.ScrollBar: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.ScrollBar.1"
Case MSFormControls.SpinButton: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.SpinButton.1"
Case MSFormControls.TabStrip: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.TabStrip.1"
Case MSFormControls.TextBox: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.TextBox.1"
Case MSFormControls.ToggleButton: GetMSFormsProgID = "Forms.ToggleButton.1"
End Select
End Function
And lastly, let's create a function that adds to a form or frame using our new function.
' Easly add control to userform or a frame.
' @returns {MSForms.control} The control that was created
Public Function AddControl(userformOrFrame As Object _
, control As MSFormControls _
, Optional name As String = vbNullString _
, Optional visable As Boolean = True _
) As MSForms.control
Set AddControl = userformOrFrame.Controls.Add(GetMSFormsProgID(control), name, visable)
End Function
To demo it, we can add every control to a blank userform by looping the enum.
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
demoAddingControlsToUserform
End Sub
Private Sub demoAddingControlsToUserform()
' Offset used to prevent controls
' overlapping as well as provide
' a height for the scrollbars
Dim offsetHeight As Double
' Add each control to the userform
' and set top to make sure they are not overlapping
Dim index As MSFormControls
For index = CheckBox To ToggleButton
With AddControl(Me, index)
.Top = offsetHeight
offsetHeight = offsetHeight + .Height
End With
Next
' Show scrollbars and adjust the height to show
' all the added controls.
With Me
.ScrollBars = fmScrollBarsVertical
.ScrollHeight = offsetHeight + 20
End With
End Sub
My variation on the theme above. This is just for a 4x4 array of buttons though. Create a userform and add this to its code. The same concepts can be used with your labels (or see the previous answer):
Private cmdLots(20) As MSForms.CommandButton
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
For i = 1 To 4
For j = 1 To 4
k = i + (4 * j)
Set cmdLots(k) = UserForm2.Controls.Add("Forms.CommandButton.1", "cmd1")
With cmdLots(k)
.Top = i * 25
.Left = (j * 80) - 50
.BackColor = RGB(50 * i, 50 * j, 0)
.Caption = "i= " & i & " j= " & j
End With
Next j
Next i
End Sub