Word Document Properties

Chapter 7: Interacting with the User
12_046500 ch07.qxp 12/5/06 5:35 PM Page 157

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Prompts:
Forms should always have prompts for every field. Some
forms in applications that you use probably have blank fields that don’t
contain any information. Unless you hover the mouse over the field, you
don’t know the field’s purpose.
Decoration:
Gaudy forms make people ill, but you can still embellish 
the forms that you create. A company logo or other form of simple 
decoration makes a drab form nicer to use. An icon that enhances the
user’s ability to understand any textual prompts (such as a Delete icon
on a Delete command button) is also acceptable and helpful when you
must support users who speak the application’s language as a second
language.
Accelerator keys:
You might not like moving your hand from the key-
board to the mouse every time that you want to select a new control. 
In fact, many people find this requirement difficult or impossible. Using
accelerator keys (shown as underlined letters) lets someone use just the
keyboard to access the controls on your form.
Control choice:
VBA provides you with a good selection of useful tools
in the Toolbox. If you find these choices limiting, you can always add
new controls to the Toolbox. Always use the right control for the job.
Not every data-entry task requires a 
TextBox
. Some tasks require a
ListBox
, a 
ComboBox
, a 
CheckBox
, or an 
OptionButton
control. 
(See the upcoming Figure 7-2 for a list of standard controls.)
Flexibility:
A form requires some level of flexibility to display properly
on every system. You might need to use your program on a system with
a smaller display, which means that you might have to resize the form.
If you use a laptop, you might have to use the high-contrast setting to
see the display, which means that the characters are larger and that the
form might not display correctly.
Using the Basic Controls
VBA provides a good set of basic controls, as shown in Figure 7-2. You might
use VBA to create a number of programs and never need anything more than
the basic control set. In fact, the basic control set meets just about every
need, and you seldom see anything other than these controls used in
Windows programs.
Click the Select Objects button (refer to Figure 7-2) whenever you want to
select any object on a form. VBA selects this button by default. It also picks
the Select Objects button after you add a new control to a form.
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