I am using Access 2000. To open a form, I use the following code:

dim strName as String

strName = "frm No Price"
docmd.OpenForm strName,,,,,acDialog

This works fine. But I get a "Run-time error '2450'. Microsoft Access can't find the form 'frm No Price' referred to in a macro expression or Visual Basic code." when I try this:

dim frmName as Form

Set frmName = Forms("frm No Price")

Why can't it find the form in the second instance when it has no trouble finding the form in the first instance?

- Mark

Hmmmm... Mark, my first suggestion is to get rid of the spaces in the form name and try again. As a rule, you should never use spaces in names for forms, reports, tables, queries, etc. Use a combination of upper and lower case and underscores ( _ ) to make your names easier to understand; but don't use spaces.


Greg Serrano
Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality, Air Quality Division

Thanks for the reply, Greg. I discovered that the DAO library was not loaded, and that caused the problem. After going to Tools | References and loading all the DAO libraries, it worked as it should.

Two related questions: although the code worked even with spaces in the form and report names, there must be times when spaces cause problems. What sort of problems do they cause?

Secondly, do I need to load all the DAO libraries or just the latest one (I think it is version 3.6)?

- Mark

Well, not so much problems as inconveniences.

Over the years, Microsoft has tried to make its software "idiot proof" by providing automatic responses to typewritten text. Sometimes it works, and other times not. For example, you're in Word and that annoying paper clip appears when it thinks it's trying to be helpful and usually it's not. One good thing Access does is that when you type VBA code, properties and collections of control objects autofinish when you type.

So if you're coding something for a textbox, for example, if your textbox is named "My Text Box" then you'll always have to type Me.[My Text Box].This or Me.[My Text Box].That; however, not so if you name it something like "txtMyTextBox". In this instance, as soon as you type "Me.txt", Access will list out all of your control objects. Continue typing "Me.txtMy" and sure enough "Me.txtMyTextBox" will appear and you just press space and keep going. This is very handy and speeds you up a great deal.

Naming conventions for objects are "txtMyTextBox", "cboMyComboBox", "cmdMyCommandButton", "grpMyOptionGroup", etc. In that way, when the autofill kicks in, like objects are alphabetized and grouped together for easy retrieval.

Note: the bang (!) doesn't invoke this autofill and so the period is used all the time now. The bang is becoming obsolete.

I only load the latest one.


Greg Serrano
Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality, Air Quality Division

Thanks for the advice, Greg. Fortunately I am early enough in my project that changing table names, form names, etc. won't be impractical.
I'm glad the bang is obsolete. I could never remember when to use the period and when to use the bang.
- Mark