Pass a string from a User Form Button Click to Excel VBA

Question

I have created a UserForm that takes a list of open PowerPoint files and lets a user select which one they want to use. When they click the 'Set PowerPoint' button, I want to pass that button to a VBA Module where I will set the PowerPoint to the one the user just selected. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UserForm Code:

Option Explicit

Public SelectedPPT As String

Private Sub cmdCloseForm_Click()
    Unload Me
End Sub

Private Sub ComboBox1_Change()
    ComboBox1.RowSource = "Array"
End Sub

Private Sub setPPT_Click()
    'Not sure if this is the best way to select the ppt the user has chosen?
    SelectedPPT = Me.ComboBox1.Value
End Sub

This is what the UserForm looks like:

Then how can I take SelectedPPT and pass it to the module so I can select that specific PowerPoint?

Answer 1

Your SelectedPPT is breaking encapsulation and can be set from outside the form, not just the form's code. You can mitigate this design issue by making the field Private and exposing a Property Get procedure for it:

Option Explicit
Private SelectedPPT As String

Public Property Get SelectedFile() As String
    SelectedFile = SelectedPPT
End Property

Set the ComboBox row source in the form's Initialize or Activate handler, so it's initialized once. Then assign SelectedPPT when the selection changes in the ComboBox - that's your ComboBox1_Change handler.

That removes the need for that [Set PowerPoint] button and its Click handler.

I would have an [Ok] and a [Cancel] button, and I'd make the form remember whether it's cancelled:

Private IsCancelled As Boolean

Public Property Get Cancelled() As Boolean
    Cancelled = IsCancelled
End Property

Private Sub OkButton_Click()
    Me.Hide
End Sub

Private Sub CancelButton_Click()
    IsCancelled = True
    Me.Hide
End Sub

And then you also need to account for the case where the user clicks the red X button to close the form; you can do that by handling the forms' QueryClose event:

Private Sub UserForm_QueryClose(Cancel As Integer, CloseMode As Integer)
    If CloseMode = VbQueryClose.vbFormControlMenu Then
        IsCancelled = True
        Cancel = True
        Me.Hide
    End If
End Sub

The rest of the logic belongs to the calling code - let's say the form is called MyAwesomeForm ; you'd have something like this:

Dim filename As String
With New MyAwesomeForm
    .Show
    If Not .Cancelled Then
        filename = .SelectedFile
        'do whatever you wanted to do with that filename
    End If
End With

Note:

• At no point the form calls Unload Me
• It's the caller's responsibility to create and destroy the form object
• Caller uses a New instance of the form every time
• Caller has read-only access to whatever values the form exposes through properties