Screen Object

The Screen object refers to the particular form, report, or control that currently has the focus.

Using the Screen Object

You can use the Screen object together with its properties to refer to a particular form, report, or control that has the focus.

For example, you can use the Screen object with the ActiveForm property to refer to the form in the active window without knowing the form's name. The following example displays the name of the form in the active window:

MsgBox Screen.ActiveForm.Name

Referring to the Screen object doesn't make a form, report, or control active. To make a form, report, or control active, you must use the SelectObject method of the DoCmd object.

If you refer to the Screen object when there's no active form, report, or control, Microsoft Access returns a run-time error. For example, if a standard module is in the active window, the code in the preceding example would return an error.

The following example uses the Screen object to print the name of the form in the active window and of the active control on that form:

Sub ActiveObjects()
    Dim frm As Form, ctl As Control

    ' Return Form object pointing to active form.
    Set frm = Screen.ActiveForm
    MsgBox frm.Name & " is the active form."
    ' Return Control object pointing to active control.
    Set ctl = Screen.ActiveControl
    MsgBox ctl.Name & " is the active control " _
        & "on this form."
End Sub