Microsoft Excel VBA - Lesson 10: Form and Controls Design

	Form and Control Design

The Location of a Control on a Form

Introduction

In the previous lesson, we saw that a characteristic, also called a property, of a control is information used to describe or define an object. The description can be done visually or programmatically. Some of the visual description is done by designing the object; that is, by changing its aspects using the mouse, the keyboard, and the tools provided by Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Visual Basic.

Practical Learning: Introducing Controls Design

Start Microsoft Excel and, on the Ribbon, click the Developer tab

To launch the programming environment, in the Code section of the Ribbon, click the Visual Basic button

To create a form, on the main menu of Visual Basic, click Insert -> UserForm

On the Toolbox, click the CommandButton and click somewhere on the form (no need for precision)

On the Toolbox, click ComboBox and click the form away from the previously added CommandButton

Moving a Control

When you add a control to the work area in Microsoft Excel or to a form in Microsoft Visual Basic, it assumes a position on its container. If you want, you can change that location by moving the control.

To move a control, click it and drag in the direction of your choice. To move a group of controls, first select them. Click it and drag the selection in the direction of your choice

When a control has been selected, as your mouse moves over it, its pointer displays a different cursor. One of these cursors can be used to move a control. This cursor is represented as a cross with four arrows:

To move a control, click its border and hold the mouse down, drag in the direction of your choice. When you get to the desired location, release the mouse.

Control Centering Towards the Middle of the Form

You can also position one or more controls in the middle of the form. To do that, select the control, then, on the main menu of Visual Basic, click Format -> Center In Form -> Vertically.

Aligning Controls

Horizontal Alignment

When many controls are selected on a form, one of the controls has dark handles:

In our descriptions, the control with the dark handles will be referred to as the base control.

During form design, to better position the controls, you can use the main menu with the Format group. Microsoft Visual Basic also provides the UserForm toolbar to assist you. To display the UserForm toolbar, on the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, you can click View -> Toolbars -> UserForm.

If you have a certain control on the form and want to position it exactly at equal distance between the left and the right borders of the form, select the control, then, on the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format -> Center in Form -> Horizontally. To get the same option, on the UserForm toolbar, click the arrow of the Center button and click Horizontally:

Horizontal alignment affects controls whose distance from the left border of the form must be the same. To perform this type of alignment, you can use the main menu where you would click Format -> Align, and select one of the following options:

Lefts: All selected controls will have their left border coincide with the left border of the base control
Centers: The middle handles of the selected controls will coincide with the middle handles of the base control
Rights: All selected controls will have their right border coincide with the right border of the base control

To get the same options using the UserForm toolbar, click the arrow of the Align button and select the desired option: Lefts, Centers, or Rights:

Vertical Alignment

Another option you have consists of moving controls up or down for better alignment. Once again you must first select the controls. Then, on the main menu, click Format -> Align, and click one of the following options:

Tops: All selected controls will have their top border coincide with the top border of the base control but their left border would have the same distance with the left border of the parent
Middles: The top handles of the selected controls will align vertically with the top handle of the base control
Bottoms: All selected controls will have their bottom border coincide with the bottom border of the base control but their left border would have the same distance with the left border of the parent

To get the same options using the UserForm toolbar, click the arrow of the Align button and select the desired option: Tops, Middles, or Bottoms.

Horizontal Spacing and Alignment

Suppose you have a group of horizontally aligned controls as follows:

Obviously the controls on this form are not enjoying the most professional look. The Format group of the main menu allows you to specify a better horizontal alignment of controls with regards to each other. To use it, first select the controls. Then, on the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format -> Horizontal Spacing, and click one of the following options:

Make Equal: Microsoft Visual Basic will calculate the horizontal distances that separate each combination of two controls and find their average. This average is applied to the horizontal distance of each combination of two controls:

Make Equal

Increase: Microsoft Visual Basic will move each control horizontally, except the base control (the control that has white handles) by one unit away from the base control. This will be done every time you click the Increase Horizontal Spacing button or the Format -> Horizontal Spacing -> Increase menu item

Increase

Decrease: Microsoft Visual Basic will move each control horizontally, except the base control (the control that has white handles) by one unit towards the base control. This will be done every time you click the Decrease Horizontal Spacing button or the Format -> Horizontal Spacing -> Decrease menu item

Decrease

Remove: Microsoft Visual Basic will move all controls (horizontally), except for the left control, to the left so that the left border of a control touches the right border of the next control

Remove

Vertical Spacing and Alignment

Suppose you have a group of horizontally aligned controls as follows:

The controls on this form are not professionally positioned with regards to each other. Once again, the Format group of the main menu allow you to specify a better vertical alignment of controls relative to each other. To align them, on the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format -> Vertical Spacing and click one of the following options:

Make Equal: Microsoft Visual Basic will calculate the total vertical distances that separate each combination of two controls and find their average. This average is applied to the vertical distance of each combination of two controls

Make Equal

Increase: Microsoft Visual Basic will move each control vertically, except the base control (the control that has darker handles) by one unit away from the base control. This will be done every time you click the Increase Horizontal Spacing button or the Format -> Horizontal Spacing -> Increase menu item

Increase

Decrease: Microsoft Visual Basic will move each control, except the base control (the control that has darker handles) by one unit towards the base control. This will be done every time you click the Decrease Horizontal Spacing button or the Format -> Horizontal Spacing -> Decrease menu item

Decrease

Remove: Microsoft Visual Basic will move all controls vertically, except for the top control, to the top so that the top border of a control touches the bottom border of the next control towards the top

Remove

The Widths of Controls

Introduction

If you click a controlâ€™s button on the Toolbox and click a UserForm, the control assumes a default width. The width of a control is the distance from its left to its right borders.

To visual specify the width of a control, click it, position the mouse on one of its left or right handle until the mouse cursor appears with a horizontal bar with two arrows . Then click and drag left or right in the direction of your choice. When you get the desired with, release the mouse.

The distance from the left border to the right border of a control is referred to as its Width property. Therefore, to specify the width of a control with precision, click the control. In the Properties window, click Width and type the desired value. To programmatically specify the width of a control, access it using its name, type the period, followed by Width, the assignment operator, and the desired value.

If a control displays or contains text, such as the caption of a button, click the control. On the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format and click Size to Fit.

Enlarging or Narrowing Controls

Instead of one, you can also resize a group of controls at the same time. To enlarge or shrink many controls, select them. Position the mouse on the left or right handle of one of the selected controls to get the desired cursor . Click and drag left or right until you get the desired widths, then release the mouse.

Consider the following form:

Design

Imagine you would like each of these buttons to have just enough space to accommodate its caption. First select the controls that will be resized. To resize the controls, on the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format and click Size to Fit. If you do, the controls will be resized based on the contents of their value:

If all the controls are text boxes, their widths would be reduced to be able to hold a character.

Consider the following form:

Design

Imagine one of the controls has a certain width and you want to apply that width to the other controls. Select the controls but make as the base control the object that has the width you want. Here is an example where the button labeled Order Processing is selected as the base:

On the main menu, you can click Format -> Make Same Size -> Width. Alternatively, on the UserForm toolbar, you can click the arrow of the right button and click Width:

After doing this, the controls would be enlarged or narrowed based on the width of the control that was set as the base:

The controls would be enlarged or narrowed based on the width of the control that was set as the base

The Heights of Controls

Introduction

The height of a control is the distance from its top to its bottom borders. This can be illustrated as follows:

To visual specify the height of a control, click it, position the mouse on one of its top or bottom handle until the mouse cursor appears with a vertisal bar with two arrows . Then click and drag up or down in the direction of your choice until you get the desired height. Then release the mouse.

To specify the width of a control with precision, click the control. In the Properties window, click Height and type the desired value. To programmatically specify the height of a control, access it using its name, type the period, followed by Height, followed by =, and the desired value.

If a control displays or contains text, such as the caption of a button, click the control. On the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click Format and click Size to Fit.

To programmatically specify the height of a control, type its name, access its Height property and assign the desired value.

Shrinking or Heightening Various Controls

You can resize many controls at the same time. To do this, select the controls. Position the mouse on the top or bottom handle of one of the selected controls to get the desired cursor . Click and drag up or down. All of the selected controls would be resized.

You can shrink or heighten many controls based on the height of one of the controls. To start, select the controls but use as base the control that has the height you would like to apply on the other controls. Here is an example where the button labeled Get is set as the base:

Resizing Controls

On the main menu, you can click Format -> Make Same Size -> Height. Or, on the UserForm toolbar, you can click the arrow of the right button and click Height.

After doing this, the controls would get shrunk or tall based on the width of the control that was set as the base:

The controls would get shrunk or tall based on the width of the control that was set as the base

The Widths and Heights of Controls

Resizing a Control

Instead of separately setting the width or the height of a control or a group of controls, you can specify both pieces of information at the same time.

To visually specify both the width and the height of a control:

Click and hold the mouse on a control. Drag in the direction of your choice
Click the control to select it. Position the mouse on one of its borders but not on the handles until the mouse cursor appears as a cross with four arrows . Click and drag in the direction of your choice

When you get to the desired position, release the mouse.

To resume, to resize a control, click it to select it. Position the mouse on a border, a handle, or a corner of the selected control. Use the appropriate mouse cursor:

Cursor	Role
	Moves the seized border in the North-West <-> South-East direction
	Shrinks or heightens the control
	Moves the seized border in the North-East <-> South-West direction
	Narrows or enlarges the control
	Changes both the width and height of a control

Resizing the Controls

Imagine you have added three controls to a form and the design appears as follows:

To visually resize various controls, first select them. Position the mouse on the border or corner of one of the selected controls until you get the cursor that would resize to the direction of your choice:

Click and drag in the direction of your choice:

Once you get the desired size, release the mouse.

To precisely change the sizes of various controls at the same time, first select them. Then, in the Properties window, change the values of the Width and Height properties. The new value would be applied to all selected controls. Alternatively, Microsoft Visual Basic provides tools to automatically do this for you.

Control Maintenance

Copying a Control

If you had applied some design on a control and you want to replicate that design, you can copy the control. This is mostly a simple operation of copy n' paste. You can copy a control on the work area or on a form and paste it on the same container (you are not allowed to copy a control from the work area to a form and vice versa). You can also copy a control from one work area and paste it in another work area. You can copy a control from one form and paste it in another form.

When you copy and paste a control, there are some characteristics it would retain and some others it would loose. Normally, it would keep its aesthetic characteristics (such as the color) and its size but it will loose some others (such as its location and its programmatic characteristics such as its name.

To copy a control:

Right-click the control and click Copy
Click the control to select it and press Ctrl + C

To copy a group of controls, first select the controls:

Right-click in the selection and click Copy
Press Ctrl + C

To paste the copied controls, in the work area or on a form:

Right-click the destination (work area or form) and click Paste
Press Ctrl + V

Deleting Controls

If you have added a control to the work area or a form but you don't need it anymore, you can remove it from the container. You can also delete a group of controls in one step.

To remove a control from a work area or from a form:

Click the control and press Delete
Right-click the control and click Cut

To remove a group of controls, select them:

Press Delete
Right-click one of the selected controls and click Cut

Tab Ordering

When using the controls of a form, you can press Tab to move from one control to another. For example, after entering a value in a text box of a form, if there is another text box on the right side, when you press Tab, the caret should move to that right control. If there is no control on the right side, the caret should move to the control under the one previously used. If the caret or focus is in the last bottom control on a form and you press Tab, the caret should move back to the first record. This follows the arranged sequence of the controls on the form. For this reason, the controls on a form should be aligned in the order of a logical sequence.

When you add a control to a form that already has other controls, it is sequentially positioned at the end of the existing controls. The sequence of controls navigation is set using the Tab Order dialog box. To access the Tab Order dialog box:

Right-click the form and click Tab Order

Tab Order

On the main menu of Microsoft Visual Basic, click View -> Tab Order

Primary Characteristics of Windows Controls

The Name of a Control

Every object used in a computer must have a name. This allows you and the operating system to know at any time what object you are referring to. When you add a new control to the work area in Microsoft Excel or to a form in Microsoft Visual Basic, the object receives a default name. For example, the first CommandButton you add is named CommandButton1. If you add another button, it would be named CommandButton2, and so on. The default name assigned may not be indicative enough for the role a control is playing, especially when you use many controls on the same container. Therefore, you should assign your own custom names to the controls you use.

In the Properties window, the name of a control is represented with the (Name) field. To change the name of a control, click (Name) and type the desired name. There are rules you must follow when naming your controls. The name of a control:

Must start with a letter
After the first letter, can contain letters, digits, and underscores only
Cannot contain space

Based on these rules, you can adapt your own.

Practical Learning: Naming Windows Controls

On the form, right-click CommandButton1 and click Properties
In the Properties window, click (Name) and type cmdSubmit
On the form, click the combo box
In the Properties window, click (Name) and type cboSizes

Border Style

Some controls display a border when they are drawn and some others don't. Some of these controls allow you to specify a type of border you want to show surrounding the control. This characteristic is controlled by the BorderStyle property.

The Text or Caption of a Control

The Caption or Text of a Control

Some controls are text-based, meaning they are meant to display or sometimes request text from the user. For such controls, this text is referred to as caption while it is simply called text for some other controls. This property is not available for all controls.

If a control displays text, it may have a property called Caption in the Properties window. After adding such a control to a work area or a form, its Caption field would display the same text as its name. At design time, to change the caption of the control, click its Caption field in the Properties window and type the desired value. For most controls, there are no strict rules to follow for this text. Therefore, it is your responsibility to type the right value. Some other controls have this property named Text. For such a control, when you add it to a work area or a form, its Text field in the Properties window may be empty. If you want, you can click the Text field and type the desired text.

The text provided in Caption or a Text field of a text-based control can only be set â€œas isâ€ at design time. If you want the text to change while the application is running, you can format it. For example, such a control can display the current time or the name of the user who is logged in. These format attributes cannot be set at design time. To change the text of a text-based control at run time, either assign a simple string or provide a formatted string to the Caption or the Text property.

Practical Learning: Setting Controls Text

On the form, click the button
In the Properties window, click Caption and type Submit
On the form, click the combo box
In the Properties window, click Text field and type Large

The Alignment of the Text or Caption of a Control

If a control is text-based, when you provide text to it or when you type text in it, by default, text is positioned to the left side of the control. This is appropriate if the value entered is a string (regular text). In some cases, such as numbers, you may prefer the value to be position in the center or on the right side of the control. This characteristic is referred to as the alignment of text. Once again, not all controls have this option.

The ability to control the alignment of text is done through the TextAlign property:

Text Alignment

It provides three options:

TextAlign	Result
1 - frmTextAlignLeft	Text will be aligned to the left of the control
2 - fmTextAlignCenter	Text will be position in the center of the control
3 - fmTextAlignRight	Text will be aligned to the left of the control

To programmatically specify the text alignment of a control that supports this characteristics, assign the desired option to this property. Here is an example:

TextBox1.TextAlign = fmTextAlignRight

The Font of Text of a Control

The font specify what face, size, and style a control should use to display its text. To specify or change the font of a control, click it to select in. In the Properties window, click Font and click the browse button . This would display the Font dialog box:

Font

From this dialog box, you can select the font name, the style, the size, and the effect(s). Once you are ready, click OK.

The Location of a Control

Introduction

We saw when you add a control to the work area or to a form, it gets a default position. After adding the control, it is positioned in the body of the parent using a Cartesian coordinate system whose origin is located on the top-left corner of the parent window. If the parent is the work area in Microsoft Excel, the origin is under the small boxes under the Formula Bar:

Origin

If you create a form in Microsoft Visual Basic, the origin of its location is located just under the title bar to the left:

The horizontal measurements move from the origin to the right. The vertical measurements move from the origin to the bottom. The location of a control is both:

The distance between the top border of the work area or of the form and the top border of the control
The distance from the left border of the work area or of the form to the left border of the control

Setting the Location of a Control

In the Properties window, the distance between the top border of the work area or of the form and the top border of the control is represented by the Top property. The distance between the left border of the form and the left border of the control is represented by the Left property:

The Location of a Control on a Form

Location

To move a control with precision, click it to select it and access its Properties window. In the Properties window, change either or both the Left and the Top values. To programmatically specify the location of a control, access its using its name. Then access its Width or its Height properties and assign the desired value.

The Size of a Control

The Width of a Control

We saw different ways of visually resizing a control. As seen already, the width of a control is the distance from its left to its right borders:

Width

The width of a control is represented by the Width property. Therefore, to specify the width of a control with precision, access it using its name, type the period, followed by Width, the assignment operator, and the desired value.

The Height of a Control

As described already, the height of a control is the distance from its top to its bottom borders:

Height

To programmatically specify the height of a control, access it using its name, type the period, followed by Height, followed by =, and the desired value.

The Colors of a Control

Introduction

Colors are used to paint something about a control. For example, you can change the color of a control or just the color of the text that a control is displaying. Both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Visual Basic support colors at various levels.

To visual change a color, you can use the Properties window. In the Properties window, the fields that support the color options are provided as a combo box. When you click the arrow of the combo box, a window made of two parts would display:

The color window is divided in two property pages labeled Palette and System. The Palette property page is probably the easiest section to specify a color because it provides small boxes that each shows its color. The colors are represented each by a name. Those are official names recognized by the Microsoft Windows operating systems but you should not use those colors in your code.

To programmatically support colors, Microsoft Visual Basic provided two systems. Microsoft Visual Basic provides a few constants values you can use as colors. These contants are:

Constants	Resulting Color
vbBlack	Black
vbBlue	Blue
vbCyan	Cyan
vbGreen	Green
vbMagenta	Magenta
vbRed	Red
vbWhite	White
vbYellow	Yellow

As you can see, this is a limited list. Obviously there should be other ways to specify a color. In Microsoft Windows operating systems, a color is recognized as a number made of three parts. The first part is small number that ranges from 0 to 255. This part represents the red section. The second part also is a number from 0 to 255 and represents the green value.The third part also is a number from 0 to 255 and represents the blue part. To support this, the Visual Basic language provides a function named RGB and whose syntax is:

Function RGB(Red As Byte, Green As Byte, Blue As Byte) As Long

This function takes three arguments. Each argument should be a number between 0 and 255. If the arguments are valid, the function would produce a Long value that represents a color recognized by Microsoft Windows. Here is an example:

BackColor = RGB(28,174, 77)

As mentioned already, the RGB() function produces a Long integer that represents a color. If you already know the number that represents the color, you can use it as the color. For example, you can assign it to the colored property. Here is an example:

BackColor = 4912394

This number is provided in decimal format. As an alternative, you can provide it in hexadecimal format. Here is an example:

BackColor = &HF420DD

The Background of a Control

When you add a new control to a work area or a form, the control is painted with a certain color but this depends on the control. The background color of a control is the color used to paint the surface of the control.

To change the background color of a control, first select it. In the Properties window, click BackColor and select the desired color.

The Text Color of a Control

To make its text visible, a control shows it in a certain that, by default, is black. If you want, you can change that color.

To support the color used to display its text, each control is equipped with a property named ForeColor. Therefore, to visually change the color of text of a control, select that control. In the Properties window, click ForeColor and select the desired color. Here are examples:

Fore Color

To programmatically specify or change the text color of a control, access it. Then access its ForeColor property and assign it the desired color.

The Border Color of a Control

Almost every control has a border. This shows where the control starts and where it ends. The controls that show a border paint it with a certain color. Most controls that have a border use a type of 3-D effect. This depends on the control. To control the color of the border of a control, click it to select it. In the Properties window, click BorderColor and select the desired color. To programmatically specify or change the border color of a control, assign the desired color to its BorderColor property.

Operating System Characteristics of Controls

The Tab Stop of a Control

You can navigate through controls using the Tab key. When that key is pressed, the focus moves from one control to the next. By their designs, not all controls can receive focus and not all controls can participate in tab navigation. Even controls that can receive focus must be primarily included in the tab sequence.

The participation to tab sequence is controlled by the Boolean TabStop property in the Properties window. Every visual control that can receive focus is already configured to have this property set to True. If you want to remove a control from this sequence, set its TabStop value to False.

The Tab Index of a Control

If a control has the TabStop property set to True, to arrange the navigation order of controls, you can click a control on the form. Then, in the Properties window, set or change the value of its TabIndex field. The value must be a positive natural number.

Control's Visibility

A control is referred to as visible if it can be visually located on the screen. You can use a control only if you can see it. You have the role of deciding whether a control must be seen or not and when. The visibility of an object is controlled by the its Visible property.

At design time, when you add a control to the work area or to a form, it is visible by default. This is because its Visible property is set to True in the Properties window. If you don't want a control to primarily appear when the form comes up, you can set its Visible property to False.

Control's Availability

To be able to use a control, it must allow operations on it. For example, if a control is supposed to receive text, you can enter characters in it only if this is made possible. To make a control available, the object must be enabled. The availability of an object is controlled by the Enabled property.

By default, after adding a control to a form, it is enabled and its Enabled property in the Properties window is set to True. An enabled control displays its text or other characteristics in their normal settings. If you want to disable a control, set its Enabled property to False.

Practical Learning: Designing a Form

Click each control on the form and press Delete

Design the form as follows:

Control	Caption/Text	Name	Other Properties
Frame	Order Identification
Label	Employee #:
TextBox		txtEmployeeNumber
TextBox		txtEmployeeName
Label	Customer Phone:
TextBox		txtCustomerPhone
TextBox		txtCustomerName
Label	Date Left:
TextBox		txtDateLeft
Label	Time Left:
TextBox		txtTimeLeft
Label	Date Expected:
TextBox		txtDateExpected
Label	Time Expected:
TextBox		txtTimeExpected
Label	Date Picked Up:
TextBox		txtDatePickedUp
Label	Time Picked Up:
TextBox		txtTimePickedUp
Frame	Items to Clean
Label	Item
Label	Unit Price
Label	Qty
Label	Sub-Total
Label	Shirts
TextBox	1.50	txtUnitPriceShirts	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityShirts	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalShirts	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Label	Pants
TextBox	2.25	txtUnitPricePants	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityPants	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalPants	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
ComboBox	None	cbxNameItem1
TextBox	0.00	txtUnitPriceItem1	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityItem1	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalItem1	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
ComboBox	None	cbxNameItem2
TextBox	0.00	txtUnitPriceItem2	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityItem2	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalItem2	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
ComboBox	None	cbxNameItem3
TextBox	0.00	txtUnitPriceItem3	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityItem3	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalItem3	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
ComboBox	None	cbxNameItem4
TextBox	0.00	txtUnitPriceItem4	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0	txtQuantityItem4	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
TextBox	0.00	txtSubTotalItem4	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Frame	Order Summary
Label	Cleaning Total:
TextBox	0.00	txtCleaningTotal	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Label	Tax Rate:
TextBox	5.75	txtTaxRate	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Label	%
Label	Tax Amount:
TextBox	0.00	txtTaxAmount	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Label	Order Total:
TextBox	0.00	txtOrderTotal	TextAlign: 3 - fmTextAlignRight
Label	Order Status:
ComboBox		cbxOrderStatus
Button	Close	btnClose

Return to Microsoft Excel
To save the file, press Ctrl + S
In the Save As Type combo box, select Excel Macro-Enabled
Change the File Name to gdcs1
Click Save

Controls' Methods: Giving Focus

On a form that has many controls, at one particular time, only one control can receive input from the user. The control that is currently receiving input or actions from the user is said to have focus.

To give focus to a control, the user can click the intended control or press Tab a few times until the control receives focus. To programmatically give focus to a control, type the name of the control, followed by the period operator, followed by the SetFocus method. An example would be:

Private Sub Example()
    txtAddress.SetFocus
End Sub


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