Load Event

The Load event occurs when a form is opened and its records are displayed.

Remarks

To run a macro or event procedure when these events occur, set the OnLoad property to the name of the macro or to [Event Procedure].

The Load event is caused by user actions such as:

• Starting an application.
• Opening a form by clicking Open in the Database window.
• Running the OpenForm action in a macro.

By running a macro or an event procedure when a form's Load event occurs, you can specify default settings for controls, or display calculated data that depends on the data in the form's records.

By running a macro or an event procedure when a form's Unload event occurs, you can verify that the form should be unloaded or specify actions that should take place when the form is unloaded. You can also open another form or display a dialog box requesting the user's name to make a log entry indicating who used the form.

When you first open a form, the following events occur in this order:

Open Þ Load Þ Resize Þ Activate Þ Current

If you're trying to decide whether to use the Open or Load event for your macro or event procedure, one significant difference is that the Open event can be canceled, but the Load event can't. For example, if you're dynamically building a record source for a form in an event procedure for the form's Open event, you can cancel opening the form if there are no records to display.

When you close a form, the following events occur in this order:

Unload Þ Deactivate Þ Close

The Unload event occurs before the Close event. The Unload event can be canceled, but the Close event can't.

Note   When you create macros or event procedures for events related to the Load event, such as Activate and GotFocus, be sure that they don't conflict (for example, make sure you don't cause something to happen in one macro or procedure that is canceled in another) and that they don't cause cascading events.

Example

The following example displays the current date in the form's caption when the form is loaded.

To try the example, add the following event procedure to a form:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Me.Caption = Date
End Sub