Vba excel userform toolbox

This tutorial will discuss VBA UserForms.

VBA UserForms

The Userform is a very important part of programming in VBA.  It allows you to build a professional looking user interface to communicate with the users of your VBA application.  It also allows you to totally control the user in what they are doing to your workbook.

You can, of course, use worksheet cells to accept parameters from the user, but the userform produces a far better user experience.

By expanding the height and width of your userform to the size of the Excel window, you can make your application look like a normal Windows application, with the user being totally unaware that they are using Excel as the host.

All the normal Windows controls, such as drop downs, list boxes, tick boxes are available to you.  You also have a huge range of methods, events and properties to use to enhance the user experience.

An important point is that when you display a userform that is built in or is modal, you cannot edit your code in the VBE nor access any Excel functionality.  Only when the form is closed will the cursor appear in your code.

Built in VBA UserForms

Excel VBA as several built-in forms that can be used to communicate with the user.

Message Box

This is the most commonly used form in VBA.  It simply displays a text message, possibly informing a user that they have entered invalid input or that a VBA process has finished running.  In their simplest form, they display a text string, but you can also add an icon such as a question or exclamation mark, and give the message box a different title.

This is a basic example. There is only one button to click, and the title bar says ‘Microsoft Excel’

The code to produce this is very straightforward:

Sub TestMsgBox()
MsgBox "This process has completed"
End Sub

You can use different parameters to add buttons, icons, and change the title bar

Sub TestMsgBox()
Dim Ret As Variant
Ret = MsgBox("Are you sure?", vbYesNo Or vbQuestion, "My Application")
If Ret = vbYes Then
    'Your process here
Else
    Exit Sub
End If
End Sub

This code adds in a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ button and a question mark icon, and sets the title bar. Note that you can combine the styles of the message box by using the ‘Or’ operator

Also, when you are returning a value from a message box, the return variable must be defined as a variant or vbMsgBoxResult, and the message box statement must use brackets,

Input Box

There is a very simple input box built into VBA, although it is quite restrictive in what you can do with it.  If you can, it is better to design a custom userform

Sub TestInputBox()
Dim Ret As String
Ret = InputBox("Please enter your name", "Enter Name")
MsgBox Ret
End Sub

You can also add a default value for the input into the parameters.

Get Open Filename

This allows you to utilize the Windows file dialog within your VBA code.  It looks very impressive to the user when it is running, but it is very simple to incorporate and you automatically get all the file dialog functionality with it.

The code restricts the user to only see Excel files. Unfortunately, they could type in a non-Excel filename into the File name box, and click the open button, so you would need some code to ensure that an Excel file has been selected.

Use the ‘ChDir’ command to change the default directory to your own requirements before displaying the file dialog

Note the use of wildcards in the FileFilter parameter. The Excel files to display could be pre 2007, have macros, or be binary so the filter is ‘.xls*’.

Sub TestFileDialog()
Dim MyFile As String
ChDir "C:temp"
MyFile = Application.GetOpenFilename("Excel Files (*.xls*),*.xls*", , "Select a file")
MsgBox MyFile
End Sub

If required, you can allow the user to select several files at once by using the MultiSelect parameter.  The default is False (single select only)

Sub TestFileDialog()
Dim MyFile As Variant
ChDir "C:temp"
MyFile = Application.GetOpenFilename("Excel Files (*.xls*),*.xls*", , "Select a file", , True)
For Each f In MyFile
    MsgBox f
Next f
End Sub

The user holds down the Shift key in the file dialog to select multiple files.

The For Each loop displays the full path and name of each file selected

Excel Default Dialogs

Within Excel VBA, there is a Dialogs collection which you can use to display any standard Excel dialog.  The downside is that you cannot access the parameters that the user has chosen or change the appearance of the dialog, but these dialogs can be useful in directing the user to a standard Excel function, and allowing them to choose specific parameters within the dialog.

A good example of this is to display the ‘Print’ dialog from VBA:

Sub TestPrintDialog()
Application.Dialogs(xlDialogPrint).Show
End Sub

When you open the brackets in the Dialogs collection, you will see a list of a huge number of constants for built-in dialogs. It is worth experimenting with some of these options within your code

Inserting a New User Form

You can design your own custom user forms by inserting a userform into the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)

You do this by selecting Insert | UserForm on the VBE menu bar.

Click on ‘UserForm’ and a new blank form will appear ready for you to develop on

The actual form itself (shown as ‘UserForm1’) looks quite small, but you can use the handles around it to enlarge or make it even smaller by dragging the handles with your cursor.

There is a properties window in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.  As the focus is directly on the form itself, this contains all the properties for the form specific to that form.

Note that when you start adding controls such as combo boxes and command buttons, these controls all have their own set of properties, and they can be very different in what you can do with each of them.

The properties that you see currently only apply only to the form itself.

The ‘Name’ property is the name used to define your form object within the VBA code.  You may want to use something more meaningful for the object name, so that when you are reviewing your code, it is obvious which form is being used.

The ‘Name’ property will also reflect through to the ‘Project Explorer’ window in the top left-hand corner of the screen

You will want to alter the title bar of your form to something different from ‘UserForm1’, and you can do this by typing in your new text at the ‘Caption’ property

You can make a huge number of changes to how your form is seen by the user.   You can alter colours, add images e.g. a corporate logo, change the position using ‘Left’ and ‘Top’, change the size using ‘Height’ and ‘Width’, change the mouse pointer, and many more

All of these properties can also be changed programmatically for any control that you have added to your form.  For example, a user may select from a list box control, and you may want to disable or hide other controls based on the user’s choice

Using the Toolbox

You will notice that when you click on the form itself, a toolbox pop-up appears.  If you click anywhere else e.g. the properties pane, it will disappear, but re-appear when your click on the form.

The toolbox provides the real mechanics of the form design.  This enables you to add the normal Windows controls that users are familiar with to your form.

You will have notice that on the form, there is a network of dots. This is a ‘snapgrid’ so that when you add a control to the form, it will automatically align the position to the rows and columns of dots.  This helps enormously with aligning your controls so that your do not get a ragged appearance of the controls

Should you click on a control, and then decide not to use it, clicking on the ‘Arrow’ icon in the top-left corner of the toolbox will change your cursor back to normal.

You can add additional controls to the toolbox by using Tools | Additional Controls on the VBE menu.  There are a considerable number of these available, but depending on you Windows and Excel versions, they do not always work so some experimentation is often required.

Also, your users may not have access to some of these additional controls or be running older versions of Windows and Excel, which may cause problems. In large organizations, especially if they are global, there is no such thing as a standard build PC that you can rely on!

Adding an Exit Button to Your Form

A Command button is simple to add to the form.  This looks the same way as buttons that you see in other Windows forms, usually as an ‘OK’ or ‘Cancel’ button.

Click on the Command Button icon in the toolbox. This is the second icon from the left on the bottom row of icons.  See the image above. It has the letters ‘ab’ on it.

You can either hold your mouse button down and drag the control onto your form, or you can move the cursor to the form, where it will change to a ‘cross’ cursor and you can position and size your button

If you drag the control to the form, you will get the default sizing of the button. Moving the cursor to the form allows you to change the size of the button by dragging the ‘cross’ cursor across your form

Your form will now look like this:

The button will have default text as the caption, but you will want to change it to your own requirements.  You can click on the text within the button (‘CommandButton1’) and this will allow you to edit the caption directly.

You can also change it in the properties window (bottom left-hand corner of screen).  You will see a property called ‘Caption’ and you can edit the value for this.  Change this to ‘Exit’

As with the form properties, the ‘Name’ property defines the name that will be used in your VBA code. You may want to use a name that is more meaningful and obvious within your code.  You can enter this against the ‘Name’ property.

You can re-position the button by dragging it about on the form, and you can resize it by clicking on the button handles (white square boxes) and dragging the handles to make it larger or smaller

You can also re-size the button by changing the Height and Width values in the properties window

You can view your form in Excel by clicking on the green triangle in the VBE toolbar, or pressing F5

You can call your form from VBA code within a module by using the ‘Show’ method

Sub ShowForm()
UserForm1.Show
End Sub

Your user form is effectively a global object and can be called from anywhere within your code

Currently, your command button does nothing because there is no VBA code behind it. You have to write this yourself! All that can happen at the moment is that you can click on the ‘Close’ X in the top right-hand corner of your form.

To add VBA code, double click on the button on the form

This will take you to the normal VBA code window, and will show the default event of click.

You use the ‘Hide’ method to close the form, and you can also add in any other code, such as a message box to confirm to the user what has happened.

Note that the code window has two drop downs at the top.  The first one allows you to select your form controls, and the second shows all the events that are available for you to add code.  The obvious one for a button is the ‘Click’ event, but there are others such as ‘Double Click’ or ‘Mouse Move’

When you run your form now, the button actually does something.  The form vanishes and a message box is displayed confirming that the form is closed

You can, of course, enlarge the exit code. You may wish to display another form, or take action on parameters that the user has entered on your form

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Adding a Label Control to a Form

Label controls are for prompting the user as to what sort of data they need to input to a control on the form e.g. text box, drop down, etc.  A label has no borders by default, but these can be added through the properties window if required.

As a control, they are read only to the user and are simply a way of putting text on the form, whether it is a bold heading, or an instruction of what to enter or choose.

To add a label, click on the ‘A’ icon in the toolbox (top row, second from left) and either double click on it or move your cursor to the form and select position and size.

Using the ‘Caption’ property in the properties window, or clicking on the label control, you can enter the text for the label control.

Note that the text will wrap according to the size of the label control, and if the string of text is too long, it will not appear completely on the form, so you need to be careful of the sizing of the label control.

Using the properties window, you can change the appearance of the label control, with different colours, fonts, back style e.g. if it overlays an image and you want it to be transparent

No code needs to be created for a label control.  The main purpose is to add text to the form so that the user can see how all the other controls work

Adding a Text Control to the Form

A text control is used to allow the user to input text e.g entering a name or comments

The text control is added from the toolbox by clicking on the text control icon (top row, third from left) and double clicking or dragging the control into position on your form.

The text control is often confused with the label control, but the text control is the one for user input

The ‘Enter your name’ text is a label control, as previously described, and we now have a white text box ready for the user to type something into

Using the properties window, you can change the colours, fonts, special effects, or use password characters for your text box.  Enormous flexibility is available

One very important property for a text box is the ‘MultiLine’ property.  If you want the user to enter a large amount of text into the text control e.g. comments, then the ‘MultiLine’ property must be set to True.

It is a default of False which means that however big you make your text box, the text entered will stay on one continuous line and will scroll out of the text box.  It will not wrap around within the box.

There is no pop-up when you right click on your text box when it is running, but CTRL+V will work for Paste, and CTRL+C will work for Cut, should the user want to cut and paste text to and from other applications

Again, you have to write your own code to deal with text that the user has typed in. You may wish to transfer it to a cell in a worksheet

You can add this code into the ‘Change’ event for the text box

Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Value = TextBox1.Value
End Sub

You may also want to put some validation code in to check that the user is not entering rubbish which will have disastrous effects on your application

The change event is no good for this because it is called every time the user types in a new character. The user could start typing a string of text and instantly find that they have broken your validation rules before they have completed a valid text.

You use the ‘Exit’ event.  This is triggered when the user moves the focus to another control on the form, which means that the user is no longer entering data.

Private Sub TextBox1_Exit(ByVal Cancel As MSForms.ReturnBoolean)
If IsNull(TextBox1.Value) Or Len(TextBox1.Value) < 4 Then
    MsgBox "Name is invalid", vbCritical
    TextBox1.SetFocus
End If
End Sub

When the user clicks on another control on the form, this code tests for either a null value in the text box, or less than 4 characters.  If the test is true, then a message box with a critical icon appears to inform the user that the name is invalid, and the focus is moved back to the offending text box for the user to correct.

Note that even if the user clicks on the Exit button, the text box exit event will be performed first, so this prevents the user exiting without correcting the input

Initialize and Activate Events on a Form

When VBA first creates and builds a form it triggers an ‘Initialize’ event.  However, because the form is also displayed at this point, it also triggers an ‘Activate’ event.  From then onwards, every time the form appears using the ‘Show’ method or it appears as part of a hierarchy of forms, then the ‘Activate’ event is triggered, but not the ‘Initialize’ event

The ‘Initialize’ event only happens once, but the ‘Activate’ event can happen many times

On your form you may want to set up default values from the worksheet in the input controls e.g. text boxes, so that these appear on the first use of the form, but the user can overwrite the defaults and these new values will remain in place so long as the code is running

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
TextBox1.Value = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Value
If TextBox1.Value=”” Then
	TextBox1.Visible=False
Else
	TextBox1.Visible=True
End If
End Sub

You can find the ‘Initialize’ event in the second drop down in the code window, and the userform name in the first drop down.

This code will use the value at cell A1 on ‘Sheet1’ as the default value in the text box created earlier in this article.  When the form appears for the first time, the default value will appear. The user can then overwrite the default value and this will be retained.  If CellA1 is blank the text box will be hidden otherwise is will be visible

The default value could also be hard coded:

TextBox1.Value = “John Smith”

You may also want to make sure that the values that the user has entered re-appear whenever the user fires up that form within that particular Excel session. VBA code can easily write the values back to cells within the workbook using the ‘Exit’ event on a control, and re-instate them using the ‘Activate’ event on the form

Private Sub TextBox1_Exit(ByVal Cancel as MSForms.ReturnBoolean)
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A10").Value = TextBox1.Value
End Sub

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
TextBox1.Value = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A10").Value
End Sub

This code will make the user’s values persistent and also ensure that they are saved off with the rest of the workbook

Saving Your Application and Forms

When you save your Excel workbook containing your forms, all the forms and their VBA code get saved as well. However, any values that the forms hold whilst they are displayed will be lost.

It is important to write code so that when the user exits the workbook, or the form, the values are written back to cells within the workbook and so are preserved.

Modal and Non-Modal Forms

The form itself has a property ‘Show Modal’.  This is set by default to True, but it can be changed to False (non-modal)

If a form is modal, it means that none of the Excel functionality can be accessed while the form is being displayed. This includes your code in the VBE window.  You can view the code, but the cursor and keyboard are disabled.

In a non-modal form, you can access all the Excel functionality, including the VBE window, whilst the form is being displayed.

This is important from the point of view of controlling user behaviour

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Closing a Form

However well you write your code to force the user down a certain route, they can easily circumvent it by clicking on the ‘Close’ X in the top right-hand corner of the form

You can prevent this happening by modifying the ‘QueryClose’ event of the form

Private Sub UserForm_QueryClose(Cancel As Integer, CloseMode As Integer)
Cancel = True
MsgBox "This action is disabled"
End Sub

The ‘QueryClose’ event is triggered when the user clicks the ‘Close’ X of the form.  This code cancels the action, so the user is forced to use your ‘Exit’ button and the code that you have behind it.

Enabling and Disabling Controls

All controls on your form have a property called ‘Enabled’ which is set to True or False.  If it is False, then the control is greyed out. It can be seen but cannot be used.

There is also a property called ‘Visible’ which again is set to True or False.

You can write code to either make a certain control unusable, or to make it totally invisible to the user. Using an ‘If’ statement, you can choose the circumstances when you need to do this

For example, you could disable the ‘Exit’ button initially, until the user has entered a value into the TextBox1 (name)

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
CommandButton1.Enabled = False
End Sub

Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
If Len(TextBox1.Value) > 0 Then
    CommandButton1.Enabled = True
Else
    CommandButton1.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub

This code uses the form ‘Initialize’ event to disable the exit button (Command Button 1) when the form first appears and then uses the ‘Change’ event on TextBox1 (name) to enable the Exit button if something has been typed in or disable it if the box is blank.

The ‘Change’ event is triggered every time a new character is typed in or deleted from the text box. If the user tries to enter text to make the button enabled, and then deletes all the text, the button will instantly be disabled

In the Visual Tour of Excel’s Coding Dojo series, we delved into the VBA editor’s menus, toolbars, and windows. If you found the glut of tools daunting, you’re not alone. Indeed, I did too. But, you’ll develop preferences that suit your workflow soon enough. Fortunately, the editor robustly supports customization. In fact, many of these ease the adoption of coding best practices. In this article, we explore the Excel VBA editor customization for menu, toolbar and userform toolbox.

Before we get started, there is something you should know. No, I haven’t perpetrated some heinous deed – not that I recall, at least. Note that any VBA editor customization done in Excel affects other Office applications on your computer.

On a side note, this article is one in a series of three on VBA editor customization. Listed below, for easy reference, are links to the other posts in the series:

Excel VBA Editor Customization – Menus and Toolbars

Menu and toolbar customizations let you select the toolbars you wish to make available by default. Also, they allow the addition of more commands to menus from a built-in list of commands. Moreover, you can resize toolbar icons and show or configure their ScreenTips.

The images below illustrate how you can access this VBA Editor customization. Further, these images reveal several other choices available to you. So, how do you get a feel for what they each do? You guessed it, get handsy with them and try each one out.

Excel VBA Editor Customization – UserForm Toolbox

The Toolbox is a windowpane housing all available UserForm controls. The Toolbox pops-up the first time you add a control to a UserForm.

Controls are visible and insertable VBA objects used in UserForm design. Moreover, they enable users to interact with programs by selecting or clicking on graphical elements directly.

If the Toolbox is hidden while a UserForm is active, you can use the View menu or Standard toolbar to show it. Moreover, you can enter Alt + V + X to unhide the Toolbox. Furthermore, the image below illustrates how to do this.

It is always a good idea to boost the ease of accessing controls. Besides, improved UserForm design efficiency is a fantastic side-effect of doing so. Customizing the Toolbox in any of the following ways does that:

• Customize control icons and tooltips (i.e., descriptive text);
• Insert customized versions of standard controls from UserForms;
• Include more controls using the Additional Controls command;
• Add, tailor, remove, import or export pages, and move controls between pages;
• Import or download advanced controls from external sources to expand UserForm capabilities.

To customize a control’s icon and tooltip

• Right-click the icon and select Customize from the pop-up context menu;
• Next, edit the ToolTip Text or the Tool icon;
• To edit the icon, click the Edit Picture or Load Picture buttons. These allow the insertion of a new bitmap image, which must be of the same size as the current icon or smaller.

To add customized standard controls to the Toolbox

• Add the standard control to a UserForm;
• Edit the standard control’s reusable properties in the Properties window;
• Use a simple drag and drop to copy the customized control to the Toolbox;
• Note that you can delete the new control from the Toolbox. You do this using the context menu displayed after right-clicking on it;
• Note that only properties get copied to the Toolbox, along with the new control. All the original control’s code must be manually copied to the new control or rewritten for it.

Add more controls using the Additional Controls command

Extending UserForm capabilities often means importing or downloading external controls. To do that, you use the Additional Controls command to add more controls to the Toolbox by:

• Opening the Additional Controls dialog box by selecting Additional Controls command;
• Choose the new controls from the Available Controls list shown in the dialog and click OK.

You can access the Additional Controls command from either the Tools menu. Moreover, you can also access the command from the pop-up context menu shown by right-clicking on any Toolbox icon. Also, right-clicking any Toolbox area below the title bar and tabs pops-up the context menu too. Furthermore, you can enter “Alt + T + A” to activate this command.

To add, remove, tailor, move, import or export a Toolbox page

• Right-click on the target page’s tab to display the context menu shown in the image below;
• Now, select your desired command – New Page, Delete Page, Rename, Move, Import Page, or Export Page;
• Note that exporting transfers a copy of the page, while retaining the source Toolbox page.

The Rename command displays the Rename dialog box, which lets you rename a Toolbox page and assign/edit its Control Tip Text.

The Move command displays the Page Order dialog box, which lets you reorder Toolbox pages.

To move controls between Toolbox pages

• Click and Hold the control’s icon in the source page, then drag it to hover on the destination page’s tab;
• As you do that, the Toolbox’s display switches to the destination page while hovering;
• Now, continue dragging the control’s icon onto the destination page’s main area;
• Once in the desired spot on the destination page, release the Hold to finish.

The Long and Short of It

Like most developers, you’ll want to set up your VBA editor in a manner that best suits your style or workflow. Excel supports a plethora of VBA Editor customizations to help you do just that. In this article, you’ve explored the Excel VBA editor customizations for menus, toolbars, and the userform toolbox.

This article is one in a series of three on VBA editor customization. Listed below, for easy reference, are the links to the other posts in the series:

Now, before you run off to make any alterations, remember that all VBA editor customizations in Excel also apply to the editors of all other Office applications on your computer.

The UserForm is a custom dialog box made through VBE. This box allows the input of user data in a controlled and user-friendly manner.

Adding a UserForm

1. Open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE — +)
2. Right-click anywhere in the VBAProject window
3. Select Insert
4. Select UserForm

Once you have done this, you will see the UserForm in its edit mode.

Toolbox

Through the toolbox it is possible to edit the Layout of the UserForm and create the interface for the user. If the toolbox is not showing up, just click on the icon of the Toolbar.

The standard VBA toolbox for UserForms provides the following buttons:

1. () Allows you to change the position of layout items
2. () Adds a text that can not be changed by the user when the UserForm is called It helps you describe the controls to the user
3. () Allows the user to enter (or change) text
4. () It is a list of options from which the user can choose, and it is possible for the user to include an item
5. () It is a list of options from which the user can choose, and it is not possible for the user to include an item
6. () Used to create a selection with multiple options
7. () It allows to select mutually exclusive options, which will return the values True or False E.g. Yes or No
8. () Performs an action when first clicked and a different action when clicked the second time. It transits between two states E.g. On or OFF
9. () Used to group controls that can work together or have common factors Widely used to group option buttons
10. () Adds a button that can execute a code when clicked
11. () Adds tabs that can contain the control sets, but different tabs will not have different controls
12. () Adds tabs that can contain the control sets, and different tabs may have different controls
13. () It is used to increment or decrement a value shown by another control. This increment can be previously defined
14. () Similar to the scrollbar, it also serves to increase or decrease values, however with the possibility of «dragging»
15. () Provides the ability to display an external image on the UserForm
16. () Allows the user to select or enter a defined range from a worksheet

The controls entered in the UserForm are of the ActiveX type.

ActiveX Controls allow you to enter and configure VBA codes individually.

You can add ActiveX Controls directly on spreadsheets: Developer tab $rightarrow$ Insert $rightarrow$ ActiveX Controls.

This post provides an in-depth guide to the VBA Userform starting from scratch.

The table of contents below shows the areas of the VBA UserForm that are covered and the section after this provides a quick guide so you can refer back to the UserForm code easily.

“The system should treat all user input as sacred.” – Jef Raskin

A Quick Guide to the VBA UserForm

The following table provides a quick guide to the most common features of the UserForm

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Introduction

The VBA UserForm is a very useful tool. It provides a practical way for your application to get information from the user.

If you are new to UserForms you may be overwhelmed by the amount of information about them. As with most topics in VBA, 90% of the time you will only need 10% of the functionality.

In these two blog posts(part 2 is here) I will show you how to quickly and easily add a UserForm to your application.

This first post covers creating the VBA Userform and using it as modal or modeless. I will also show you how to easily pass the users selection back to the calling procedure.

In the second part of this post I will cover the main controls such as the ListBox, the ComboBox(also called the Dropdown menu), the TextBox and the CheckBox. This post will contain a ton of examples showing how to use each of these controls.

Related Articles

VBA Message Box
VBA UserForm Controls

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What is the VBA Userform?

The VBA UserForm is a dialog which allows your application to get input from the user. UserForms are used throughout all Windows applications. Excel itself has a large number of UserForms such as the Format Cells UserForm shown in the screenshot below.

UserForms contain different types of controls such as Buttons, ListBoxes, ComboBoxes(Dropdown lists), CheckBoxes and TextBoxes.

In the Format Cells screenshot above you can see examples of these controls:

• Font, Font style and Size contain a textbox with a ListBox below it
• Underline and Color use a Combobox
• Effects uses three CheckBoxes
• Ok and Cancel are command Buttons

There are other controls but these are the ones you will use most of the time.

The Built-in VBA Userforms

It is important to note that VBA has some useful built-in UserForms. These can be very useful and may save you having to create a custom one. Let’s start by having a look at the MsgBox.

VBA MsgBox

The VBA message box allows you to display a dialog to the user. You can choose from a collection of buttons such as Yes, No, Ok and Cancel.

You can easily find out which of these buttons the user clicked on and use the results in your code.

The following code shows two simple examples of using a message box

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub BasicMessage()

    ' Basic message
    MsgBox "There is no data on this worksheet "
    ' Basic message with "Error" as title
    MsgBox "There is no data on this worksheet ", , "Error"

End Sub

In the next example, we ask the user to click Yes or No and print a message displaying which button was clicked

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub MessagesYesNoWithResponse()

    ' Display Yes/No buttons and get response
    If MsgBox("Do you wish to continue? ", vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
        Debug.Print "The user clicked Yes"
    Else
        Debug.Print "The user clicked No"
    End If

End Sub

In the final example we ask the user to click Yes, No or Cancel

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub MessagesYesNoCancel()

    ' Display Yes/No buttons and get response
    Dim vbResult As VbMsgBoxResult

    vbResult = MsgBox("Do you wish to continue? ", vbYesNoCancel)

    If vbResult = vbYes Then
        Debug.Print "The user clicked Yes"
    ElseIf vbResult = vbNo Then
        Debug.Print "The user clicked No"
    Else
        Debug.Print "The user clicked Cancel"
    End If

End Sub

You can see all the MsgBox options here.

InputBox

If you want to get a single piece of text or value from the user you can use the InputBox. The following code asks the user for a name and writes it to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G):

' Description: Gets a value from the InputBox
' The result is written to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' https://excelmacromastery.com/vba-userform/
Sub GetValue()

    Dim sValue As String
    sValue = Application.InputBox("Please enter your name", "Name Entry")
    
    ' Print to the Immediate Window
    Debug.Print sValue

End Sub

You can add validation to the InputBox function using the Type parameter:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Public Sub InputBoxTypes()

    With Application
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Formula", Type:=0)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Number", Type:=1)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Text", Type:=2)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Boolean", Type:=4)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Range", Type:=8)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Error Value", Type:=16)
        Debug.Print .InputBox("Array", Type:=64)
    End With
    
End Sub

You can download the workbook with all the code examples from the top of this post.

GetOpenFilename

We can use the Windows file dialog to allow the user to select a file or multiple files.

The first example allows the user to select a file

' Print the name of the selected file
sfile = Application.GetOpenFilename("Excel Files (*.xlsx),*.xlsx")
Debug.Print sfile

The following example allows the user to select multiple files

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetMultipleFiles()
    
    Dim arr As Variant
    arr = Application.GetOpenFilename("Text Files(*.txt),*.txt" _ 
        , MultiSelect:=True)

    ' Print all the selected filenames to the Immediate window
    Dim filename As Variant
    For Each filename In arr
        Debug.Print filename
    Next
    
End Sub

Note: If you need more flexibility then you can use the File Dialog. This allows you to use the “Save as” file dialog, select folders and so on.

How to Create a VBA UserForm

If the built-in UserForms do not cover your needs then you will need to create your own custom Userform. To use a UserForm in our code we must first create one. We then add the necessary controls to this Userform.

We create a UserForm with the following steps

1. Open the Visual Basic Editor(Alt + F11 from Excel)
2. Go to the Project Window which is normally on the left(select View->Project Explorer if it’s not visible)
3. Right-click on the workbook you wish to use
4. Select Insert and then UserForm(see screenshot below)

A newly created UserForm will appear. Anytime you want to access this Userform you can double click on the UserForm name in the Project window.

The Toolbox dialog should also be visible. If it’s not visible select View->Toolbox from the menu. We use the toolbox too add controls to our UserForm.

Designing the VBA UserForm

To view the design of the UserForm, double click on it in the Project window. There are three important windows we use when creating our UserForms.

1. The UserForm
2. The properties window – this is where we can change the setting of the Userform and its controls
3. The toolbox – we use this to add new controls to our UserForm

A Very Simple VBA UserForm Example

Let’s have a look at a very simple UserForm example.

You can download this and all the code examples from the top of this post.

1. Create a new UserForm
2. Rename it to userformTest in the (Name) property in the properties window
3. Create a new module(Right-click on properties window and select Insert->Module)
4. Copy the DislayUserForm sub below to the module
5. Run the sub using Run->Run UserForm Sub from the menu
6. The UserForm will be displayed – you have created your first UserForm application!
7. Click on the X in the top right of the UserForm to close

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub DisplayUserForm()
    
    Dim form As New UserFormTest  
    form.Show
    
End Sub

Setting the Properties of the UserForm

We can change the attributes of the UserForm using the properties window. Select View->Properties Window if the window is not visible.

When we click on the UserForm or a control on a UserForm then the Properties window displays the attributes of that item.

Generally speaking, you only use a few of these properties. The important ones for the UserForm are Name and Caption.

To change the name of the UserForm do the following

1. Click on the UserForm in the Project window or click on the UserForm itself
2. Click in the name field of the properties window
3. Type in the new name

The Controls of the VBA UserForm

We add controls to the UserForms to allow the user to make selections, enter text or click a button. To add a control use the steps below

1. Go to the toolbox dialog – if not visible select View->Toolbox
2. Click on the control you want to add – the button for this control will appear flat
3. Put the cursor over the UserForm
4. Hold down the left mouse button and drag until the size you want

The following table shows a list of the common controls

Adding Code to the VBA UserForm

To view the code of the UserForm

1. Right-click on the UserForm in the properties windows(or the UserForm itself) and select “View Code”
2. You will see a sub called UserForm_Click. You can delete this when you create your first sub

Note: If you double click on a control it will bring you to the click event of that control. This can be a quicker way to get to the UserForm code.

Adding Events to the VBA UserForm

When we use a UserForm we are dealing with events. What this means is that we want to perform actions when events occur. An event occurs when the users clicks a button, changes text, selects an item in a ComboBox, etc. We add a Sub for a particular event and place our code in it. When the event occurs our code will run.

One common event is the Initialize event which occurs when the UserForm is created at run time. We normally use this event to fill our controls with any necessary data. We will look at this event in the section below.

To add an event we use the ComboBoxes over the code window(see screenshot above). The left one is used to select the control and the right one is used to select the event. When we select the event it will automatically add this sub to our UserForm module.

Note: Clicking on any control on the UserForm will create the click event for that control.

The Initialize Event of the VBA UserForm

The first thing we want to do with a UserForm is to fill the controls with values. For example, if we have a list of countries for the user to select from we could use this.

To do this we use the Initialize event. This is a sub that runs when the UserForm is created(see next section for more info).

To create the Initialize event we do the following

1. Right-click on the UserForm and select View Code from the menu.
2. In the Dropdown list on the left above the main Window, select UserForm.
3. This will create the UserForm_Click event. You can ignore this.
4. In the Dropdown list on the right above the main Window, select Initialize.
5. Optional: Delete the UserForm_Click sub created in step 2.

We can also create the Initialize event by copying or typing the following code

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()

End Sub

Once we have the Initialize event created we can use it to add the starting values to our controls. We will see more about this in the second part of this post.

Initialize versus Activate

The UserForm also has an Activate event. It is important to understand the difference between this and the Initialize event.

The Initialize event occurs when the actual object is created. This means as soon as you use on of the properties or functions of the UserForm. The code example below demonstrates this

Dim frm As New UserForm1

' Initialize will run as UserForm is created 
' the first time we use it
frm.BackColor = rgbBlue

frm.Show

We normally reference the UserForm first by calling Show which makes it seem that displaying the UserForm is triggering the Initialize event. This is why there is often confusion over this event.

In the example below calling Show is the first time we use the UserForm. Therefore it is created at this time and the Initialize event is triggered.

Dim frm As New UserForm1

' Initialize will run here as the Show is the 
' first time we use the UserForm
frm.Show

The Activate event occurs when the UserForm is displayed. This can happen using Show. It also occurs any time the UserForm is displayed. For example, if we switch to a different window and then switch back to the UserForm then the Activate event will be triggered.

We create the Activate event the same way we create the Initialize event or we can just copy or type the following code

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()

End Sub

1. Initialize occurs when the Userform is created. Activate occurs when the UserForm is displayed.
2. For each UserForm you use – Initialize occurs only once, Activate occurs one or more times.

Calling the VBA UserForm

We can use the VBA UserForm in two ways

1. Modal
2. Modeless

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Modal Userform

Modal means the user cannot interact with the parent application while this is visible. The excel Format cells dialog we looked at earlier is a modal UserForm. So are the Excel Colors and Name Manager dialogs.

We use modal when we don’t want the user to interact with any other part of the application until they are finished with the UserForm.

Modeless Userform

Modeless means the user can interact with other parts of the application while they are visible. An example of modeless forms in Excel is the Find dialog(Ctrl + F).

You may notice that any Excel dialog that allows the user to select a range has a limited type of Modeless – the user can select a range of cells but cannot do much else.

Modal versus Modeless

The actual code to make a UserForm modal or modeless is very simple. We determine which type we are using when we show the UserForm as the code below demonstrates

Dim frm As New UserFormFruit

' Show as modal - code waits here until UserForm is closed
frm.Show vbModal

' Show as modeless - code does not wait
frm.Show vbModeless

' default is modal
frm.Show 

As the comments above indicate, the code behaves differently for Modal and Modeless. For the former, it waits for the UserForm to close and for the latter, it continues on.

Even though we can display any UserForm as modal or modeless we normally use it in one way only. This is because how we use them is different

Typical use of a Modal form

With a Modal UserForm we normally have an Ok and a Cancel button.

The Ok button normally closes the UserForm and performs the main action. This could be saving the user inputs or passing them back to the procedure.

The Cancel button normally closes the UserForm and cancels any action that may have taken place. Any changes the user made on the UserForm are ignored.

Typical use of a Modeless form

With a Modeless UserForm we normally have a close button and an action button e.g. the Find button on the Excel Find Dialog.

When the action button is clicked an action takes place but the dialog remains open.

The Close button is used to close the dialog. It normally doesn’t do anything else.

A VBA UserForm Modal Example

We are going to create a Modal UserForm example. It is very simple so you can see clearly how to use a UserForm.

You can download this and all the code examples from the top of this post.

The following UserForm allows the user to enter the name of a fruit:

We use the following code to show this UserForm and to retrieve the contents of the fruit textbox:

' PROCEDURE CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UseModal()

    ' Create and show form
    Dim frm As New UserFormFruit

    ' Display Userform - The code in this procedure 
    ' will wait here until the form is closed
    frm.Show
    
    ' Display the returned value
    MsgBox "The user has selected " & frm.Fruit
        
    ' Close the form
    Unload frm
    Set frm = Nothing

End Sub

' USERFORM CODE
' Returns the textbox value to the calling procedure
Public Property Get Fruit() As String
    Fruit = textboxFruit.Value
End Property

' Hide the UserForm when the user click Ok
Private Sub buttonOk_Click()
    Hide
End Sub

What you will notice is that we hide the UserForm when the user clicks Ok. We don’t set it to Nothing or unload it until after we are finished retrieving the user input. If we Unload the UserForm when the user clicks Ok then it no longers exists so we cannot access the values we want.

Using UserForm_QueryClose to Cancel the UserForm

We always want to give the user the option to cancel the UserForm. Once it is canceled we want to ignore any selections the user made.

Each form comes with an X in the top right-hand corner which allows the user to cancel it:

This button cancels the UserForm automatically – no code is necessary. When the user clicks X the UserForm is unloaded from memory. That is, it no longer exists so we will get an error if we try to access it. The code below will give an error if the user clicks on the X

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub DisplayFruit()
    
    Dim frm As New UserFormFruit
    frm.Show
        
    ' ERROR HERE - If user clicks the X button
    Debug.Print frm.Fruit
    
End Sub

To avoid this error we want to prevent the UserForm from being Unloaded when the X button is clicked. To do this we use the QueryClose event.

We create a variable first at the top of the UserForm code module. We also add a property so that we can read the variable when we need to retrieve the value:

Private m_Cancelled As Boolean

Public Property Get Cancelled() As Variant
    Cancelled = m_Cancelled
End Property

Then we add the UserForm_QueryClose event to the UserForm module:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Private Sub UserForm_QueryClose(Cancel As Integer _
                                       , CloseMode As Integer)
    
    ' Prevent the form being unloaded
    If CloseMode = vbFormControlMenu Then Cancel = True
    
    ' Hide the Userform and set cancelled to true
    Hide
    m_Cancelled = True
    
End Sub

In the first line, we prevent the UserForm from being unloaded. With the next lines, we hide the UserForm and set the m_Cancelled variable to true. We will use this variable later to check if the UserForm was canceled:

We can then update our calling procedure to check if the UserForm was canceled

' PROCEDURE CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub DisplayFruit()
    
    Dim frm As New UserFormFruit
    frm.Show
        
    If frm.Cancelled = False Then
        MsgBox "You entered: " & frm.Fruit
    Else
        MsgBox "The UserForm was cancelled."
    End If
    
End Sub

If we want to add a Cancel button it is simple to do. All we need to do is Hide the form and set the variable m_Cancelled to true. This is the same as we did in the QueryClose Event above:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/vba-userform/
Private Sub buttonCancel_Click()
    ' Hide the Userform and set cancelled to true
    Hide
    m_Cancelled = True
End Sub

Using the Escape key to cancel

If you want to allow the user to cancel using the Esc it is simple(but not obvious) to do. You set the Cancel property of your ‘Cancel’ button to True. When Esc is pressed the click event of your Cancel button will be used.

Putting All the Modal Code Together

The final code for a Modal form looks like this:

' USERFORM CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Private m_Cancelled As Boolean

' Returns the cancelled value to the calling procedure
Public Property Get Cancelled() As Boolean
    Cancelled = m_Cancelled
End Property

' Returns the textbox value to the calling procedure
Public Property Get Fruit() As String
    Fruit = textboxFruit.Value
End Property
 
Private Sub buttonCancel_Click()
    ' Hide the Userform and set cancelled to true
    Hide
    m_Cancelled = True
End Sub

' Hide the UserForm when the user click Ok
Private Sub buttonOk_Click()
    Hide
End Sub

' Handle user clicking on the X button
Private Sub UserForm_QueryClose(Cancel As Integer _
                                  , CloseMode As Integer)
    
    ' Prevent the form being unloaded
    If CloseMode = vbFormControlMenu Then Cancel = True
    
    ' Hide the Userform and set cancelled to true
    Hide
    m_Cancelled = True
    
End Sub

' PROCEDURE CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub DisplayFruit()
    
    ' Create the UserForm
    Dim frm As New UserFormFruit
    
    ' Display the UserForm
    frm.Show
    
    ' Check if the user cancelled the UserForm
    If frm.Cancelled = True Then
        MsgBox "The UserForm was cancelled."
    Else
        MsgBox "You entered: " & frm.Fruit
    End If
    
    ' Clean up
    Unload frm
    Set frm = Nothing
    
End Sub

&nbps;
You can use this code as a framework for any Modal UserForm that you create.

VBA Minimize UserForm Error

We are now going to use a simple example to show how to use a Modeless VBA UserForm. In this example, we will add a customer name to a worksheet each time the user clicks on the Add Customer button.

You can download this and all the code examples from the top of this post.

The code below displays the UserForm in Modeless mode. The problem with this code is that if you minimize Excel the UserForm may not be visible when you restore it:

' PROCEDURE CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UseModeless()

    Dim frm As New UserFormCustomer
    ' Unlike the modal state the code will NOT
    ' wait here until the form is closed
    frm.Show vbModeless
    
End Sub

The code below solves the problem above. When you display a Userform using this code it will remain visible when you minimize and restore Excel:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UseModelessCorrect()

    Dim frm As Object
    Set frm = VBA.UserForms.Add("UserFormCustomer")
    
    frm.Show vbModeless
    
End Sub

An important thing to keep in mind here is that after the frm.Show line, the code will continue on. This is different to Modal where the code waits at this line for the UserForm to be closed or hidden.

When the Add button is clicked the action occurs immediately. We add the customer name to a new row in our worksheet. We can add as many names as we like. The UserForm will remain visible until we click on the Close button.

The following is the UserForm code for the customer example:

' USERFORM CODE
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Private Sub buttonAdd_Click()
    InsertRow
End Sub

Private Sub buttonClose_Click()
    Unload Me
End Sub

Private Sub InsertRow()
    
    With Sheet1
    
        ' Get the current row
        Dim curRow As Long
        If .Range("A1") = "" Then
            curRow = 1
        Else
            curRow = .Range("A" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
        End If
        
        ' Add item
        .Cells(curRow, 1) = textboxFirstname.Value
        .Cells(curRow, 2) = textboxSurname.Value
        
    End With
    
End Sub

Part 2 of this post

You can find the second part of this post here.

What’s Next?

Free VBA Tutorial If you are new to VBA or you want to sharpen your existing VBA skills then why not try out the The Ultimate VBA Tutorial.

Related Training: Get full access to the Excel VBA training webinars and all the tutorials.

(NOTE: Planning to build or manage a VBA Application? Learn how to build 10 Excel VBA applications from scratch.)