TIP The equal sign rule has two exceptions: the Expression argument of the SetValue action and in Microsoft Office

Painting PDF417 in Microsoft Office TIP The equal sign rule has two exceptions: the Expression argument of the SetValue action and

the RepeatExpression argument of the RunMacro action give unexpected results if you use an equal sign They evaluate the expression twice If you want help from the Expression Builder, click the Build button, which appears at the right of the argument box when you click an argument that accepts an expression Not all arguments accept expressions For example, you must select from the list for the ObjectType argument If you use an expression where one isn t permitted, you get an error message

syntax: [Forms]![formname]![controlname] The ! symbol indicates what follows is an object named by the user If the object was named by Access, you would use a period () to separate the object names In addition, both forms must be open

After you complete the macro, you can run it to see if it behaves as planned You have a choice of running the complete macro at once or stepping through each action one at a time

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If an error occurs in the macro or you don t get the results you expect, use the step-through method of running the macro

After you finish adding the actions and setting the arguments, you can run a macro in several ways While still in the Macro window, click the Run button or choose Run | Run After you name and save the macro, you can run it from the Database window by one of the following methods:

Select the macro name and click Run Double-click the macro name Right-click the macro name and choose Run from the shortcut menu Choose Tools | Macro| Run Macro, and then enter the macro name in

form or report first If an error occurs during the operation, Access displays an error message Read the message, and then click OK to open the Action Failed dialog box This tells you which action in the macro failed and the arguments being used at the time The following Arguments box shows the second argument is missing from the GoToRecord action You can tell by the two commas with no argument between them It also shows any conditions that were in effect Your only option in this dialog box is to click Halt to stop the macro Before closing the dialog box, note the action name and other data about where the fault occurred Then, it s up to you to switch to the Macro window to correct the problem

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If you create a macro with many actions and it contains an error, you can use the Single Step method to move through the macro, one action at a time You must be in the Macro window to step through the macro actions To start stepping through the macro, click Single Step or choose Run | Single Step, and then click Run or choose Run | Run to carry out the first action A Macro Single Step dialog box opens showing the details of the first step in your macro

again, or choose Run and clear the Single Step command Your options in this dialog box are as follows:

Step (default), which moves to the next action Halt, which stops macro execution Continue, which stops Single Step mode and runs the rest of the macro

macro might open a form that has other macros assigned to the OnOpen, OnLoad, or other event properties If other macros run as a result of the macro you re testing, their steps are also displayed in the MacroSingleStep dialog box You can tell it s a different macro by the name in the MacroName box

After you see how a macro runs, you might decide to make some changes to it, such as adding another action, changing the order of the actions, adding a condition to the action, adding a Where Condition argument to limit the records, or creating additional macros to include in a macro group

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