Dictator program question
 

Hi,

I'm using Office 2007 on Windows XP; I have coded a dictator program that
incorporates similar code to the following (I say similar because I have
tweaked it somewhat and it is sort of complex to describe concisely here):

Private Function DicatorMode(argTrueFalse As Boolean)
'ExecuteExcel4Macro portion by Jim Rech; other code Nick hodge;
With Application
.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon""," & argTrueFalse & ")"
.CommandBars("Status Bar").Visible = argTrueFalse
If argTrueFalse = False Then .Caption = "User Mode" Else .Caption = ""
.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = argTrueFalse
End With
ActiveWindow.View = xlNormalView
ActiveWindow.WindowState = xlMaximized
End Function

The problem is, when this code runs, if the user opens a new XL file, in the
same instance, it is also in dictator mode, but then my shortcut menus are
unavailable, thus locking the user in a "stray" file with no way out.

Is there a way to alter the code to prevent this from happening?

Dictator program question
 

Try this in a workbook that should be in Dictator mode

Private Sub Workbook_Activate()
DicatorMode False
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_Deactivate()
DicatorMode True
End Sub

If your code is in an addin use withevents at application or workbook level
to trap when a dictator wb is active or not.

FWIW the value of argTrueFalse does not seem intuitive in relation to the
name of the function, whatever.

Regards,
Peter T

"xp" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm using Office 2007 on Windows XP; I have coded a dictator program that
incorporates similar code to the following (I say similar because I have
tweaked it somewhat and it is sort of complex to describe concisely here):

Private Function DicatorMode(argTrueFalse As Boolean)
'ExecuteExcel4Macro portion by Jim Rech; other code Nick hodge;
With Application
.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon""," & argTrueFalse & ")"
.CommandBars("Status Bar").Visible = argTrueFalse
If argTrueFalse = False Then .Caption = "User Mode" Else .Caption = ""
.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = argTrueFalse
End With
ActiveWindow.View = xlNormalView
ActiveWindow.WindowState = xlMaximized
End Function

The problem is, when this code runs, if the user opens a new XL file, in
the
same instance, it is also in dictator mode, but then my shortcut menus are
unavailable, thus locking the user in a "stray" file with no way out.

Is there a way to alter the code to prevent this from happening?

Dictator program question
 

An alternative is to open the dictator in a new instance of Excel, and
prevent other workbooks from opening in this instance.

Prevent other workbooks from opening by setting the Ignore Other
Applications setting to True:
Application.IgnoreRemoteRequests = True

Open the dictator in its own instance: not so easy. There are a couple
different ways.
1. Have users double click a desktop shortcut (icon) to start it. Shortcut
runs a small VB6 exe that creates a new Excel object then loads the dictator
workbook. This has the benefit of bypassing the macro warning.
2. Routine in dictator's Workbook_Open code that detects whether other
windows are open and visible, and if so it opens a new instance and reopens
itself in that instance. I recall that there was a trick to this one, and
unfortunately I can't find the project now where I did this.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/
Advanced Excel Conference - Training in Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009...00906ACNJ.html
_______


"Peter T" <peter_t@discussions wrote in message
...
Try this in a workbook that should be in Dictator mode

Private Sub Workbook_Activate()
DicatorMode False
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_Deactivate()
DicatorMode True
End Sub

If your code is in an addin use withevents at application or workbook
level to trap when a dictator wb is active or not.

FWIW the value of argTrueFalse does not seem intuitive in relation to the
name of the function, whatever.

Regards,
Peter T

"xp" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm using Office 2007 on Windows XP; I have coded a dictator program that
incorporates similar code to the following (I say similar because I have
tweaked it somewhat and it is sort of complex to describe concisely
here):

Private Function DicatorMode(argTrueFalse As Boolean)
'ExecuteExcel4Macro portion by Jim Rech; other code Nick hodge;
With Application
.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon""," & argTrueFalse & ")"
.CommandBars("Status Bar").Visible = argTrueFalse
If argTrueFalse = False Then .Caption = "User Mode" Else .Caption = ""
.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = argTrueFalse
End With
ActiveWindow.View = xlNormalView
ActiveWindow.WindowState = xlMaximized
End Function

The problem is, when this code runs, if the user opens a new XL file, in
the
same instance, it is also in dictator mode, but then my shortcut menus
are
unavailable, thus locking the user in a "stray" file with no way out.

Is there a way to alter the code to prevent this from happening?

Dictator program question
 

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message

<snip
2. Routine in dictator's Workbook_Open code that detects whether other
windows are open and visible, and if so it opens a new instance and
reopens itself in that instance. I recall that there was a trick to this
one, and unfortunately I can't find the project now where I did this.

Not sure if there's any particular trick, simply re-open itself in a new
automated instance, then close itself in the current instance. It would end
up being read-only, which may or may not be a problem. I posted a quick
example here.

http://tinyurl.com/dxgzbb

Regards,
Peter T