Setting Global Options Programmatically in Access 2000

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Acey James Bunch
Microsoft Corporation

March 2000

Applies To: Microsoft® Access 2000

Summary: This article covers setting the global options for Access in programming code. It includes discussion, sample code, and detailed tables of all appropriate options. It highlights those options that were documented incorrectly and points out some undocumented options. (17 printed pages)

Introduction What Are Global Options? Setting Global Options in Programming Code Global Options Summary    View Options    General Options    Web Options    Edit/Find Options    Keyboard Options    Datasheet Options    Forms/Reports Options    Advanced Options    Tables/Queries Options    Extra Options Additional Resources

As with previous versions of Microsoft® Access, Access 2000 allows you to set many options that affect various aspects of the Access environment. Sometimes known as environment settings, these options can alter the Access environment, and in some cases, provide information about the environment's current state. This article discusses the many different global options that you can use, and the different ways in which you can use them.

Global options are those options that affect the Access environment as whole, that is, the settings are applied to the entire Access environment. They are stored in the registry at \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Access\Settings\. Because they are stored in the registry, the settings will not persist if the database is run on a different machine. If user profiles are turned on, they will affect the Access environment for all databases used by a particular user on the same machine where they are set. The global options that are available in the user interface can be found by selecting the Tools menu, then selecting Options.

Figure 1. The Global Options dialog box

As you can see in the screen shot above, the Options dialog box has eight tabs on it, and each of these tabs relates to some aspect of the Access environment. The following list describes each of the eight tabs.

• **View—**Objects that can be seen or viewed in the Access user interface.
• **General—**Variety of general-purpose options such as margins, sort order, four-year formatting, plus Web options.
• **Edit/Find—**Determines how records are found and that actions are confirmed.
• **Keyboard—**Controls how Access responds to keyboard input.
• **Datasheet—**Determines datasheet colors, fonts, and styles.
• **Forms/Reports—**Sets the form and report templates.
• **Advanced—**Determines a variety of advanced options such as command-line arguments, refresh rates, and default locking behavior.
• **Tables/Queries—**Controls the default table and query design features.

Although the global options may be set in the Access user interface, you can also set them by using programming code. In general, there are three types of option values that you can set: true/false, alphanumeric, and predefined.

• True/false values are those options that are turned on or off with a checkbox, and the value returned or set is either True (-1) or False (0).
• Alphanumeric values are those options that can be set by entering a string or numeric value, and the values returned or set are strings, just as they appear in the Options dialog box.
• Predefined values are those options that can be chosen from a list box, combo box, or option group, and the values returned or set corresponds to the option's position in the list or option group, with the indexing of those values beginning with zero.

When manipulating global options programmatically, you use the GetOption or SetOption methods of the Application object for both .mdb and .adp databases, and it is the same whether you are using Data Access Objects (DAO) or ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) for data access. The GetOption method returns the value setting of the option, while the SetOption method allows you to set the option with a value that you provide. In most cases, you should use a Variant data type to hold the values returned from the GetOption method because the type of value returned can vary depending on the type of option.

The following example uses the GetOption method to retrieve the value of the default database directory, which in the Options dialog box is called "Default Database Folder".

Dim varSetting As Variant
varSetting = Application.GetOption("Default Database Directory")

To set the default database directory, use the SetOption method and pass the option name as the first argument, the value as the second:

Application.SetOption "Default Database Directory", "C:\MyDatabases"

It is important to spell the option names correctly, and to use proper spacing. However, the option names are not case-sensitive. If you are setting an option that uses a true/false value, use the True or False reserved words.

Application.SetOption "Show Status Bar", False

If you are setting an option that is a predefined value, simply pass the index value of the item in the list or option group, where 0 is the first item in the list or group, 1 is the second item, and so on. In this example, the index is that of the Number data type.

Application.SetOption "Default Field Type", 2

**Note   **If you use the SetOption method to change a user's global options settings, be sure to restore those settings when your code is finished executing or when your application ends. Otherwise, the settings you specify will be applied to any Access database the user opens.

For more information about using the GetOption or SetOption methods, type getoption or setoption in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Visual Basic for Applications Help window, and then click Search.

The following sections discuss all of the different options available from the various tabs in the Options dialog box, and they also cover other values you use can use to manipulate global options in programming code. The name values are the exact names that you should use in code. Where appropriate, a specific Access file type is noted if the option only applies to it. Note that all of them will work with either .mdb or .adp files unless otherwise indicated.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the View tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the General tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found in the WebOptions dialog box that is accessed from the General tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Edit/Find tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Keyboard tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Datasheet tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Forms/Reports tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Advanced tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are equivalent to the options found on the Tables/Queries tab of the Options dialog box.

The following options are not available from the Options dialog box or any other Access user interface component, they are only available in programming code.

Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide. This comprehensive book covers Office programming with the Visual Basic for Applications programming language.

MSDN. This Web site always has the latest information for developing solutions with Microsoft platforms and languages.

Microsoft Office Developer. Look here for the latest information on developing applications with Microsoft Office.