Contextures Blog

If you want to enter data in an Excel worksheet, while keeping the data sheet hidden, you can create an Excel UserForm.

I’ve updated my sample file, so you can now add new parts to the drop down list, while you’re  entering data. It’s almost working the way it should, but I’m stuck on one step, so if you have a solution, please let me know!

[Update: Problem solved with a workaround — see below.]

Select Part from ComboBox Drop Down List

In the sample file, you can click the Add Parts Information button on the worksheet, to open the UserForm.

Then, at the top of the UserForm, select a Part ID from the combo box drop down list.

The drop down list shows part ID, and the part name. After you make a selection, only the part ID appears in the combo box.

The Parts List

On another sheet in the workbook, there are two lists – Location, and Parts. These are dynamic named ranges, based on a formula, and the named ranges will expand automatically, as new items are added to the lists.

Add a New Part to the List

In the latest version of the sample file, you can add new parts to the list, while you are entering data in the UserForm.

1. First, if the Part ID that you want is not in the list, type it into the Part ID combo box.
2. Next, when you press the Tab key, to move to the next control, a Part Description text box will appear.
3. Enter the description, then fill in the rest of the data.
4. Finally, click the Add This Part button

Select the New Part

After you click the Add This Part button, the new item is added to the Parts List, and the Parts list on the worksheet is sorted A-Z, based on the PartID column.

The next time you click the Part ID combo box arrow, you will see that the new item now appears in the drop down list.

SetFocus Problem

My goal was to have the Part Description activated, as soon as it was made visible. However, the VBA code wouldn’t cooperate, so I’ve commented out the following line in the code:

Me.txtPartDesc.SetFocus

If you have a solution for getting that line to work, please share it in the comments, or send me an email. I’d appreciate it!

Set Focus Workaround

Update: Thanks to JeanMarc, Jon and Dave, the tab order is working now. You can see their suggestions in the comments below.

• Instead of being hidden, the Parts Description textbox moves to the far right, so it’s not in the visible part of the form, then moves back when needed.
• To keep the tab key from stopping on the “off form” textbox, its position is checked. If the textbox is at the far right, go to the next control.

Download the Sample File

To get the sample file, and to check the Excel VBA code, you can download the file from my Contextures website.

On the Sample Excel Files page, in the UserForm section, look for UF0017 – Parts Database with Updateable Comboboxes

The file is available in Excel xlsm or Excel xls format, and zipped. The workbook contains macros, so enable those if you want to test the UserForm combo box code.
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Why do good Excel macros suddenly go bad? Does that ever happen to you? Here’s my latest adventure, and maybe it will help you prevent (or solve) a similar problem.

Unprotect Sheets With a Macro

When making changes to client files, I use macros to quickly and easily protect or unprotect all the sheets in an Excel file, like the examples shown below.

• This macro protects all the worksheets in the active workbook, with no password.

Sub ProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Protect DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=True, Password:=""
Next ws
End Sub

• And this macro unprotects all the worksheets, with no password.

Sub UnProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Unprotect
Next ws
End Sub

The Protect Macro Fails

However, even a simple macro can run into problems, as I’m sure you’ve already discovered with your own macros. It worked yesterday, but the macro won’t run correctly today, in the same file. And you’re sure that nothing was changed in the file – so what’s the problem?

That’s what happened to me recently, while trying to unprotect a file, so I could make some changes. The macro ran, but the sheet’s weren’t unprotected.

Excel error

I commented out the macro’s error handling, to try and solve the problem, and this run-time error 1004 popped up:

Method ‘Unprotect’ of object ‘_Worksheet’ failed.

Prevent the Macro Problem

After a bit of head scratching, I realized what the problem was – I had grouped some of the sheets, because they all needed a formatting change. Oops! Because the sheets were grouped, they couldn’t be unprotected.

I added a line of code to the macro, to ungroup the sheets, if necessary, and the problem is solved. You could do something fancier, like identifying the active sheet, and selecting it, instead of the first sheet.

Revised Excel VBA Code

Sub ProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
Sheets(1).Select '<====== selects first sheet in workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Protect DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=True, Password:=""
Next ws
End Sub

The same line was added to the Unprotect macro.

Sub UnProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
Sheets(1).Select '<====== selects first sheet in workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Unprotect
Next ws
End Sub

Watch the Protect Macro Fails Video

To see the problem that occurs when you try to protect or unprotect group sheets, and the code change that fixes it, you can watch this short Excel video tutorial.

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