Show a Message Box for a specified time.

One often wishes to show a message box to a user to inform them that a particular operation has completed. Sometimes there are further operations to complete, but these will not start until the user has closed the message box.

This technique creates a message box (actually a UserForm) and shows it for a specified time. After that specified time, the message box will close and allow the VBA to continue.

First create a User Form named FlashForm. The form should have 2 labels on the form named MainLabel and TimedLabel and a command button named OKButton.

The UserForm_Activate code (listed below) will set the labels etc to the right size and position.

Copy the code below to the user form code sheet.

[color blue]
Private Sub OKButton_Click()
ForceOK
End Sub

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
With Me
.Height = 190
.Width = 230
.MainLabel.Height = 40
.MainLabel.Width = 210
.MainLabel.Left = 10
.MainLabel.Top = 12
.TimeLabel.Height = 24
.TimeLabel.Width = 210
.TimeLabel.Left = 10
.TimeLabel.Top = 66
.OKButton.Height = 36
.OKButton.Width = 210
.OKButton.Left = 10
.OKButton.Top = 102
End With
TimeSet = Now + TimeValue("00:00:" & Format(T, "00"))
Application.OnTime TimeSet, "ForceOK"
End Sub
[/color]

Now copy the code below to a standard module.

[color blue]
Public TimeSet As Variant
Public OKClicked As Boolean
Public T As Integer

Sub ShowQuickMessage()
ShowFlashForm "Sheet 1 has now printed", 10
End Sub

Sub ShowFlashForm(Title As String, Time As Integer)
Load FlashForm
T = Time
With FlashForm
.TimeLabel.Caption = "This display will disappear in " & T & " seconds."
.Caption = "INFORMATION MESSAGE"
.MainLabel.Caption = Title
.Show
End With
Unload FlashForm
OKClicked = False
End Sub

Sub ForceOK()
On Error Resume Next
With FlashForm
.Hide
End With
Application.OnTime TimeSet, "ForceOK", , False
OKClicked = True
Unload FlashForm
End Sub
[/color]

The principle behind this is that you use the code
[color red]ShowFlashForm "Sheet 1 has now printed", 10 [/color]
to show the Flashform with the MainLabel showing the text for 10 seconds.

The FlashForm is activated and as part of that activation it starts the [color blue]OnTime[/color] function. This means that at the [color blue]TimeSet[/color] , which is T seconds after the form was activated, then it will call the macro [color blue]ForceOK[/color] which is also called by clicking the OK button.

This macro closes the FlashForm and stops the OnTime function.

I use this technique in a macro as follows:

Sub MyUse()
Backup C: [color green]- a routine that takes a few minutes [/color]
ShowFlashForm "C backed up", 5
Backup D: [color green]- a second routine that takes a few minutes [/color]
ShowFlashForm "Both drives backed up", 10
End Sub


Paul