Question

I have a textbox on an access form that I would like to enable for edditing if the textbox is blank. I am new to VBA, and am uncertain of the best way to go about it. Using a double-click event would be fine with me, but I would prefer to do it on load.

I have tried the following code, but can’t seem to get it to work. Any help would be appreciated.

Private Sub EmpID_DblClick(Cancel As Integer)
If EmpID.Text = "" Then
    Me.EmpID.Enabled = True
End If
End Sub

Answer 1

For things that should happen on a per record basis, you are best off using the current event. Do not use the .Text property for controls. If you must use a property, use .Value. The .Text property is only available when the control has focus and is generally only used in special cases such as the Change event.

Private Sub Form_Current()
  If IsNull(EmpID) Then
    Me.EmpID.Enabled = True
  End If
End Sub

In a normal set-up, there is no chance of the control being equal to a zero-length string (“”)

You can cover all bases by saying:

Trim(EmpID & "") = ""