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Select all text when Text Box receives the focus

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by maryweilage

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This week's Visual Basic e-newsletter explains how to select all text when a Text Box gets the focus.

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2 replies

by randy

I use the following code to do the same but without passing the control name each time.

Private Sub Text23_GotFocus()
SelAllText
End Sub

Public Sub SelAllText()
If Not Screen.ActiveControl Is Nothing Then
Screen.ActiveControl.SelStart = 0
Screen.ActiveControl.SelLength = Len(Screen.ActiveControl.text)
End If
End Sub

by dracowiz

I have been using the desribed method for awhile, but my users have complained about inadvertently deleting desired text without recourse. So I have amended the function to copy the text to the clipboard (or alternately another dummy text field) so that the user can retrieve the old text with the control z function similiar to word's udo function though only good for one level

Private Sub txtFields_GotFocus(Index As Integer)
If defaultTextSelect Then
txtFields(Index).Text = Trim(txtFields(Index).Text)
txtFields(Index).SelStart = 0
txtFields(Index).SelLength = Len(txtFields(Index).Text)
End If
Clipboard.SetText txtFields(Index).Text
End Sub

Private Sub txtFields_KeyDown(Index As Integer, KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
Dim tmpText As String
Dim ShiftKey As Long
ShiftKey = Shift And 7
Select Case ShiftKey
Case 2 ' or vbCtrlMask
Select Case KeyCode
Case vbKeyZ
tmpText = txtFields(Index).Text
txtFields(Index).Text = Clipboard.GetText
Clipboard.SetText tmpText
End Select
End Select
End Sub

This alternates the text box with data prior to Ctrl-Z and data at got focus -- keeps my users happy.

DracoWiz

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