--------

shodan: . o O ( * user picks the same chemical again. <program> NO YOU FOOL! )
* AB snerks and changes his error message to "YOU'VE PICKED THE SAME CHEMICAL TWICE! YOU FOOL! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!"
AB: Man.
AB: That would be a great generic windows error message.
AB: * User does something innocuous in Windows
AB: <Windows> *ding* FOOL! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL! [OKAY]
shodan: heh
AB: <User> !!!!!!!!
AB: * User runs out into the street, wearing only his underwear, and doesn't turn up again until somewhere in the middle of Kansas

Μία λύση προτάθηκε από τον ίδιο που έθεσε το ερώτημα:

Να αποθηκεύονται οι επιλεγμένοι indexes σε ένα comma separated values string (csv για συντομία). Με ποιόν άλλον τρόπο όμως θα μπορούσε να αποθηκεύονται οι επιλογές;

Πρίν 1-2 χρόνια που είχα χρειαστεί κάτι αντίστοιχο είχα αποφύγει τα csv strings γιατί ήταν πολύ δύστροπα αφού απαιτούσαν μεγάλη προσοχή στη διαχείριση τους, αλλά κυρίως επειδή είναι ευαίσθητα στον τύπο των δεδομένων. Με τα νούμερα τα πάνε σχετικά καλά, αλλά με string values; Αν περιέχουν "περίεργους χαρακτήρες" όπως εισαγωγικά, τελείες, κόμματα, αλλαγές γραμμών... Αστα να πάνε, άμα είναι να σου βγάλουν την πίστη, να μένει το βύσινο!

Οπότε μια απάντηση που μου φαίνεται προφανής, αφού για μία (1) εγγραφή μπορείς να έχεις πολλές (Ν) επιλογές, είναι: Σε κάποιον άλλο πίνακα συνδεδεμένο πρός τον πρώτο με σχέση 1-Ν.

Finito!... ...σχεδόν!

Η ουσία του post δεν είναι τόσο το που αποθηκεύονται οι επιλογές, αν είναι csv, πίνακας, blog object, ή οτιδήποτε άλλο, αλλά το τι είναι αυτό που θα αποθηκεύσεις.

Αυτό που διάβασα και χτύπησε το "καμπανάκι" είναι το εξής:

...οι επιλεγμένοι indexes σε...

Την λίστα με τους επιλεγμένους indexes μπορούμε να τους πάρουμε από το property ItemsSelected το οποίο επιστρέφει ένα collection με αυτούς. Είναι όμως Μέγα λάθος! Δεν ενδιαφέρουν οι indexes (το οποίο πρακτικά σημαίνει η σειρά εμφάνισης) των επιλογών, αλλά ποιές είναι οι επιλεγμένες τιμές του bound column του ListBox. Το γιατί θα το δείξω χρησιμοποιώντας ένα παράδειγμα παρακάτω. Ενημερωτικά απλώς να αναφέρω ότι τις selected values μπορούμε να τις πάρουμε σε VB κάπως έτσι:

'
'Εύρεση επιλεγμένων τιμών σε ένα Listbox
'
Dim item As Variant

For Each item In Control.ItemsSelected
    Debug.Print Control.ItemData(item)
Next item

Να διαπιστώσουμε που φαίνεται το λάθος.

Εστω ότι έχουμε τον πίνακα t1(id: text primary key, descr: text) με τιμές:

"ΚΑ", "ΚΑΦΕΔΕΣ"
"ΑΝ", "ΑΝΑΨΥΚΤΙΚΑ"
"ΧΥ", "ΧΥΜΟΙ"

Τα εμφανίζουμε στο listbox, (φέρνουμε τα δεδομένα από τη βάση μας χωρίς να ορίσουμε κάποια ταξινόμηση, οπότε χρησιμοποιείται το id που είναι primary key). Το αποτέλεσμα είναι κάτι τέτοιο:

"ΑΝΑΨΥΚΤΙΚΑ"
"ΚΑΦΕΔΕΣ"
"ΧΥΜΟΙ"

Επιλέγουμε τα δύο τελευταία (οπότε θα δημιουργηθεί το string "1,2" που περιέχει τους indexes των δύο επιλογών) και το αποθηκεύουμε σε ένα csv string.
Κλέινουμε τη φόρμα, την ξανανοίγουμε, διαβάζουμε το csv και επιλέγονται τα items με indexes 1 και 2 οπότε φαίνονται στο listbox επιλεγμένα και τα δύο! Το αποτέλεσμα είναι κάτι τέτοιο:

"ΑΝΑΨΥΚΤΙΚΑ"
"ΚΑΦΕΔΕΣ" (επιλεγμένο)
"ΧΥΜΟΙ" (επιλεγμένο)

Κλείνουμε τη φόρμα και προσθέτουμε στον πίνακα t1 και τις εγγραφές:

"ΒΟ", "ΒΟΥΤΗΜΑΤΑ"
"ΝΕ", "ΝΕΡΑ"
"ΠΟ", "ΠΟΤΑ"
"ΦΑ", "ΦΑΓΗΤΑ"
"ΓΛ", "ΓΛΥΚΑ"

Ανοίγουμε τη φόρμα, διαβάζουμε το csv και επιλέγονται τα items με indexes 1 και 2, και βλέπουμε τα εξής στο listbox:

"ΑΝΑΨΥΚΤΙΚΑ"
"ΒΟΥΤΗΜΑΤΑ" (επιλεγμένο)
"ΓΛΥΚΑ" (επιλεγμένο)
"ΚΑΦΕΔΕΣ"
"ΝΕΡΑ"
"ΠΟΤΑ"
"ΦΑΓΗΤΑ"
"ΧΥΜΟΙ"

Ωπα! Κάτι πήγε στραβά! Είχαμε επιλέξει "ΚΑΦΕΔΕΣ" και "ΧΥΜΟΙ" (και που να το θυμόμαστε ειδικά μετά από καιρό), αλλά εμφανίζεται ΒΟΥΤΗΜΑΤΑ και ΓΛΥΚΑ, γιατί εξαρτόμαστε από τη σειρά εμφάνισης (η οποία δεν μας εγγυάται κανένας ότι δεν θα αλλάξει) και όχι από τις τιμές.

Τι θα ήταν σωστότερο;

Οταν πάμε να δημιουργήσουμε το csv string να χρησιμοποιήσουμε τον κώδικα[1] που βρίσκει τις επιλεγμένες τιμές του listbox, που θα μας δημιουργήσει το string "ΚΑ,ΧΥ", και όταν φορτώνουμε το csv να ψάχνουμε ποιά items έχουν bounded values "ΚΑ" και "ΧΥ" και αφού πάρουμε τον αντίστοιχο index να τα επιλέξουμε με Control.Selected(index) = True

Βέβαια, επειδή ο διάβολος έχει πολλά ποδάρια, να υπενθυμίσουμε ότι μιλάμε για multiselection. Αν κάποιος πάει να τα χρησιμοποιήσει και δεν δουλεύει όπως πρέπει, ας κάνει τον κόπο να ελέγξει δύο πράγματα για το Listbox:

1. είναι multiselect και
2. δεν είναι Locked!

[sourcecode language='vb']Workbooks.Open("C:\SomeFolder\SomeSubFolder\YourFile.xls")[/sourcecode]

It doesn't get much simpler than that. But it is not unusual for spreadsheets to have more than one worksheet.  If you saved "YourFile.xls" when you were viewing sheet2, then it will open on sheet2.  But what if the data you want to view and/or manipulate is on sheet1?  Well unless you specifically tell VBA to manipulate sheet1 it will execute the code on whatever sheet it opens to. So it is always a good practice to tell VBA to select the sheet you want. You would do so by using the following code:

[sourcecode language='vb']Worksheets(1).Activate[/sourcecode]

Now although that is pretty straight forward, it does require a little further explanation. When you tell VBA to activate worksheets(1) what you are specifically saying is that you want to activate the first worksheet in the workbook regardless of what it is named.  It could be named sheet4, but if it is the sheet furthest to the left it is worksheets(1) to VBA. So what do you do if you want to make sure it actually selects sheet1 or maybe a sheet that you've named Data?

Then you would change the above line of code to this:

[sourcecode language='vb']Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate[/sourcecode]

Instead of using the index number (1) you simply put the name of the sheet in quotes inside the parenthesis.

Another tweak to this that I have not personally used is that instead of using the word Worksheets you can use the word Sheets. The difference between the two is that Sheets includes all sheets in the workbook which would include any chart sheets or dialog sheets.  Conversely if you were to use either:

[sourcecode language='vb']Charts(1).Activate
DialogSheets(1).Activate[/sourcecode]

It would function the same as Worksheets(1).Activate above.  It would select the very first chart sheet or dialog sheet in the workbook regardless of its name.  So if you wanted to make sure you selected the correct chart when you opened up your YourFile.xls you would want to follow the same principle and write it this way:

[sourcecode language='vb']Charts("Chart1").Activate[/sourcecode]

Once you've gotten this, you are well on your way to adding data to an existing spreadsheet or retreiving data from an existing spreadsheet and using VBA to do the heavy lifting for you.

The Dictionary is useful when:

• You need a dynamic array without the programming overhead of managing the array.
• You need to store key/value pairs - for example, server names and IP addresses or employee names and email addresses.
• You need to search rapidly within large in-memory lists and do not want the performance hit of looping through data structures.

Unlike arrays, which force you to use ordinal references (0,1,2,3, etc.), a dictionary's key can be any combination of characters, the only requirement being that the keys must be unique. Also unlike arrays, requesting a value using a key doesn't require iteration through the data structure, making searching for known values very fast.

In the example below, we create 200,001 collection objects and add them to a dictonary using the keys 0-200000. Then we retrieve the collection with the key 200,000. It's important to note that under the hood the key parameter of the Dictionary object is overloaded, so the datatype is important - a key of 1 is different to "1", and to demonstrate this the second retrieval in the example will fail.

Public Function DictionaryTest()
    Dim dct As Dictionary, i As Long, o As Collection
    Set dct = New Dictionary
    ' Create 200,000 collection objects and store them in the dictionary...
    For i = 0 To 200000
        Set o = New Collection
        dct.Add i, o
    Next i
    ' Check if a key exists and if so show the size of the related collection (always 0 in this test)
    If dct.Exists(200000) Then
        Debug.Print dct(200000).Count
    Else
        Debug.Print "Cannot find 200000."
    End If
    If dct.Exists("200000") Then
        Debug.Print dct(200000).Count
    Else
        Debug.Print "Cannot find '200000'."
    End If
    Set dct = Nothing

End Function

Dictionaries are a highly useful VBA resource that offer more methods than collections and more flexibility than arrays, especially since the value types can be mixed within one dictionary.

En próximas entradas empezaremos con conceptos un poco más firmes sobre la temática de ArcObjects. Si alguien conoce links de sitios web que nos puedan ayudar a profundizar sobre los conceptos básicos de ArcObjects, por favor no se olviden de dejar su comentario.

Empecemos!

Dim myToolbar As CommandBar
Dim myTool As Object
Dim myMenu As Object
Dim objKeyBindings As KeyBindings

''  Toolbars
Set myToolbar = Application.CommandBars("Standard")
myToolbar.Visible = True
Set myTool = myToolbar.Controls(6)
myTool.Visible = True

Set myToolbar = Application.CommandBars("Formatting")
myToolbar.Visible = True

Set myToolbar = Application.CommandBars("Numbering")
myToolbar.Visible = True

''  Menus
Set myToolbar = Application.CommandBars("Menu Bar")
Set myTool = myToolbar.Controls(1)

Set myMenu = myTool.Controls(8)
myTool.Visible = False
Set myMenu = myTool.Controls(19)
myTool.Visible = True

''  Keys
Set objKeyBindings = Application.KeyBindings
objKeyBindings.Add KeyCategory:=wdKeyCategoryMacro, Command:="MenuPrint", KeyCode:=BuildKeyCode(wdKeyControl, wdKeyP)            'Ctrl P Print

Private Sub cmdHelp_Click()
Dim strLink As String
strLink = "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://www.google.com.au"
Shell (strLink), vbMaximizedFocus
Call cmdOK_Click
End Sub

Private Sub cmdOK_Click()
Me.Hide
End Sub

The procedure is:

• Enter the coefficients of the equations as a square matrix, that is an nxn array, where n is the number of equations, and enter the values of the equations in an n rowed column.
• invert the matrix, using the MINVERSE() function
• Multiply the inverted matrix by the result values column, using the MMULT() function.  The result is an array formula containing the n solutions to the equations.  The MMULT function can operate directly on the output from the MINVERSE function, as shown in the screenshot below.  Note that the results are an array formula, and which must be entered with ctrl-shift-enter.

The screenshot also shows two User Defined Functions that perform the same task:

SSOLVE() simply calls MINVERSE and MMULT.

GESOLVE() solves the equations by Gaussian Elimination, thus allowing much bigger systems of equations to be solved than can be handled by the built in functions.  I could not find a clear statement of the maximum capacity of the Excel buit-in matrix functions, but testing shows that it is something less than 160 equations in Excel 2000, and something greater than 160 in Excel 2007.

Right click to download the spreadsheet Simultaneous.xls

I have seen people attempt this manually, or build incredibly long CONCATENATE structures (=CONCATENATE(A1,",",A2,",".... etc.) so I built this custom function that makes the procedure very easy. Cut and paste the code below into a module in your spreadsheet:

Option Explicit

Public Function ConcatenateRange(ByVal oRange As Range, Optional sDelim As String) As String

    Dim oCell As Range
    For Each oCell In Application.Intersect(oRange, oRange.Parent.UsedRange)

        ConcatenateRange = ConcatenateRange & sDelim & CStr(oCell.Value)

    Next oCell

    ConcatenateRange = Mid(ConcatenateRange, Len(sDelim) + 1)

End Function

Now if you have a range of data items in column A, for example, and the list is an unknown length, so you can simply call =CONCATENATERANGE(A:A,",") and this will produce a comma-separated string of the used part of the range. You can change the delimiter to any character(s) you desire.

To do this, simply change the 'Key Preview' property of the form to 'Yes' and then use the 'Form_KeyDown' event in the form's VBA module. The two parameters, KeyCode and Shift, indicate which keys are being pressed and if any of the character-set shifts (ie. shift, control, alt) are being held. This fires for every key, so you will need to parse the values for KeyCodes that interest you. Resetting the KeyCode parameter to zero will effectively cancel the keypress.

- Utilizing real-time financial market data.
- Importing weather forecasts.
- Checking if your ads are appearing in a search engine.
- Viewing the latest headlines.

To import data from a webpage:

1. Click Data --> Get External Date --> From Web.
2. Enter the URL to scrape (eg. http://news.google.com/).
3. Click the yellow areas for the page divisions you wish to import.
4. Click 'Options..." to specify how HTML formatting and PRE are handled.

After importing, right click anywhere in the imported block and click 'Data Range Properties' to specify how often the page should be refreshed (the minimum time is 1 minute). Click here for a spreadsheet that demonstrates the four sample uses above.

Unfortunately, there is no specific event that is fired when your web query refreshes. However, you can use the Worksheet_Change event and verify that the target range parameter matches the cell area for your web query (see the sample spreadsheet's VBA module for details). Frequently this is required since there is usually some parsing required from the results.

If the source data of your query is dynamic (eg. you a looking up an area code driven by user-generated data), it is simple to use VBA to generate the web query results:

Dim sSearchTerm As String
sSearchTerm = Cells(2, 2) ' For example...

With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:= _
"URL;http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=" & sSearchTerm, Destination:=Range("$B$4"))
.WebSelectionType = xlEntirePage
.WebFormatting = xlWebFormattingNone
.WebPreFormattedTextToColumns = True
.WebConsecutiveDelimitersAsOne = True
.WebSingleBlockTextImport = False
.WebDisableDateRecognition = False
.WebDisableRedirections = False
.Refresh
.BackgroundQuery:=False
End With

Although web queries lack the full power available by using MSXML or WinSock to retrieve web data, for simple queries they provide a very rapid and reliable way to scrape a webpage.

It happenned to me when I transferred my save states from an Ubuntu Linux laptop to a Windows laptop. The main reason for this is because the save states from my Ubuntu laptop was created by VisualBoyAdvance 1.8beta3 version and on the Windows laptop was VisualBoyAdvance 1.7.2.

To fix this just install the VisualBoyAdvance 1.8beta3 version

OR

If you want to use to still use whatever version of Visual Boy Advance you have in both laptops make sure that you save in-game and transfer the battery files instead.

A Database would be overkill for the job and it seemed like a good opportunity to practice using XML and VBA.  Two scripting.dictionary objects could be used to hold the data in memory while creating the story. One for fiction to english translation and the other to perform reverse lookups. The data would be retrieved from the xml file when the add-in loaded and saved when it was unloaded.

It turned out to be a pretty simple job and the code is shown below. Four simple functions were required: add a word, delete a word, lookup and reverse lookup.

Dictionary Code Module

Option Explicit
Public objDict, objRDict As Variant
Public Const MYDOCUMENTS As Integer = 16
Public Const XML_ATTR_KEY As String = "Word"
Public Const XML_ATTR_VALUE As String = "Meaning"
Public Const XML_ELEMENT_OUTER As String = "Dictionary"
Public Const XML_ELEMENT_INNER As String = "Entry"
Public Const STR_INDENT As String = vbCrLf & "    "
Public Const XPATH As String = "/Dictionary/Entry"
Public Const STR_DICT_FILENAME As String = "EDictionary.xml"

Sub initDict()

Set objDict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Set objRDict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

End Sub

Function GetMyDocuments() As String
Dim WSHShell As Object
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
GetMyDocuments = WSHShell.SpecialFolders(MYDOCUMENTS)
Set WSHShell = Nothing
End Function

Sub addword()
Dim strFWord, strEWord As String
Dim frmTemp As Variant
Dim dlgResult As Integer

If (Not Selection Is Nothing) Then
strFWord = Trim(Selection.Words(1).Text)
End If
Set frmTemp = New frmLookup
frmTemp.mkAddEntry (strFWord)
Do
frmTemp.Show
If frmTemp.dlgResult = vbCancel Then
Unload frmTemp
Set frmTemp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
strFWord = frmTemp.Fictionword()
strEWord = frmTemp.Englishword()
If (strFWord <> "" And _
strEWord <> "" And _
Not objDict.Exists(strFWord)) Then
objDict.Add strFWord, strEWord
objRDict.Add strEWord, strFWord
Exit Do
Else
MsgBox "Word already exists in Dictionary or is blank.", vbExclamation
End If
Loop
End Sub

Sub delword()
Dim strFWord, strEWord As String
Dim frmTemp As Variant
Dim dlgResult As Integer

If (Not Selection Is Nothing) Then
strFWord = Trim(Selection.Words(1).Text)
End If
Set frmTemp = New frmLookup
frmTemp.mkDelEntry (strFWord)
Do
frmTemp.Show
If frmTemp.dlgResult = vbCancel Then
Unload frmTemp
Set frmTemp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
strFWord = frmTemp.Fictionword()
strEWord = frmTemp.Englishword()
If (strFWord <> "" And objDict.Exists(strFWord)) Then
strEWord = objDict.Item(strFWord)
objDict.Remove strFWord
If objRDict.Exists(strEWord) Then
objRDict.Remove strEWord
End If
Exit Do
Else
MsgBox "Word not found in Dictionary.", vbExclamation
End If
Loop
End Sub

Sub rlookup()
Dim strFWord, strEWord, strMsg As String
Dim frmTemp As Variant
Dim dlgResult As Integer

If (Not Selection Is Nothing) Then
strEWord = Trim(Selection.Words(1).Text)
End If
Set frmTemp = New frmLookup
frmTemp.mkRLookup (strEWord)
Do
frmTemp.Show
If frmTemp.dlgResult = vbCancel Then
Unload frmTemp
Set frmTemp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
strEWord = frmTemp.Englishword()
If (strEWord <> "" And objRDict.Exists(strEWord)) Then
strFWord = objRDict.Item(strEWord)
frmTemp.FictionText = strFWord
Else
MsgBox "Word not found in Dictionary.", vbExclamation
End If
Loop

End Sub

Sub lookup()
Dim strFWord, strEWord, strMsg As String
Dim frmTemp As Variant
Dim dlgResult As Integer

If (Not Selection Is Nothing) Then
strFWord = Trim(Selection.Words(1).Text)
End If
Set frmTemp = New frmLookup
frmTemp.mkLookup (strFWord)
Do
frmTemp.Show
If frmTemp.dlgResult = vbCancel Then
Unload frmTemp
Set frmTemp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
strFWord = frmTemp.Fictionword()
If (strFWord <> "" And objDict.Exists(strFWord)) Then
strEWord = objDict.Item(strFWord)
frmTemp.EnglishText = strEWord
Else
MsgBox "Word not found in Dictionary.", vbExclamation
End If
Loop

End Sub
Sub dsave()
Dim strFileName As String

strFileName = GetMyDocuments() & "\" & STR_DICT_FILENAME
savedictionary (strFileName)
End Sub
Sub dload()
Dim strFileName As String

strFileName = GetMyDocuments() & "\" & STR_DICT_FILENAME
loaddictionary (strFileName)

End Sub

Sub savedictionary(strFileName)
Dim xmlDoc As DOMDocument
Dim key As Variant
Dim dict, entry, word, meaning, node As IXMLDOMNode

Set xmlDoc = New DOMDocument
Set node = xmlDoc.createNode(NODE_ELEMENT, XML_ELEMENT_OUTER, "")
Set dict = xmlDoc.appendChild(node)
For Each key In objDict.keys()
Set node = xmlDoc.createTextNode(STR_INDENT)
dict.appendChild node
Set node = xmlDoc.createNode(NODE_ELEMENT, XML_ELEMENT_INNER, "")
Set entry = dict.appendChild(node)
Set word = xmlDoc.createAttribute(XML_ATTR_KEY)
word.Text = key
entry.Attributes.setNamedItem word
Set meaning = xmlDoc.createAttribute(XML_ATTR_VALUE)
meaning.Text = objDict.Item(key)
entry.Attributes.setNamedItem meaning
Next key
Set node = xmlDoc.createTextNode(vbCrLf)
dict.appendChild node
xmlDoc.Save strFileName

End Sub

Sub loaddictionary(strFileName)
Dim xmlDoc As DOMDocument
Dim entries As IXMLDOMNodeList
Dim entry, word, meaning As IXMLDOMNode
Dim strWord, strMeaning As String

initDict
Set xmlDoc = New DOMDocument ' Create xmldoc and load the specified xml file
xmlDoc.Load (strFileName)
If xmlDoc.documentElement Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Error loading xml dictionary file: " _
& vbCrLf & strFileName & vbCrLf _
& "File not found or failed to parse." _
, vbCritical
Exit Sub
End If
' Select all dictionary entries from the xml file
Set entries = xmlDoc.selectNodes(XPATH)
' For each entry check for and extract the attributes
For Each entry In entries
Set word = entry.Attributes.getNamedItem(XML_ATTR_KEY)
Set meaning = entry.Attributes.getNamedItem(XML_ATTR_VALUE)
If (Not (word Is Nothing) And Not (meaning Is Nothing)) Then
strWord = word.Text
strMeaning = meaning.Text
If (Not objDict.Exists(strWord)) Then
objDict.Add strWord, strMeaning         'add to dictionary
If (Not objRDict.Exists(strMeaning)) Then
objRDict.Add strMeaning, strWord    'add to rev. dictionary
End If
End If
End If
Next entry
End Sub

Autoexec Module

Option Explicit
Sub main()
Dim cmdEbar As CommandBar
Dim ctlPopup As CommandBarPopup
Dim ctlButton As CommandBarButton
Dim i As Integer

initDict ' initialise the in memory dictionary structures
dload    ' load previously persisted dictionary xml file

Set cmdEbar = Application.CommandBars.Add("E's Toolbar", , , True)
With cmdEbar
.Visible = True
.Position = msoBarTop
End With
For i = 1 To 4
Set ctlButton = cmdEbar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton)
With ctlButton
.Visible = True
.Style = msoButtonIcon
Select Case i
Case 1
.FaceId = 2006
.OnAction = "addword"
.TooltipText = "Add word to dictionary"
Case 2
.OnAction = "delword"
.TooltipText = "Delete word from dictionary"
.FaceId = 2005
Case 3
.OnAction = "lookup"
.TooltipText = "Lookup Fiction -> English"
.FaceId = 229
Case 4
.OnAction = "rlookup"
.TooltipText = "Lookup English -> Fiction"
.FaceId = 1820
Case Else
End Select
End With
Next i
End Sub

Sub main()
Application.CommandBars("E's Toolbar").Delete ' lose the toolbar
Call dsave  ' persist the dictionary to an XML file
End Sub

Form Code Module

Option Explicit
Private intResult As Integer

Private Sub UserForm_QueryClose(Cancel As Integer, CloseMode As Integer)
If CloseMode = vbFormControlMenu Then
Cancel = True           ' cancel this close event to prevent automation errors
cmdCancel_Click     ' and start our approved shutdown sequence
End If
End Sub

Property Get dlgResult() As Integer
dlgResult = intResult
End Property

Private Sub cmdCancel_Click()
intResult = vbCancel
Me.Hide
End Sub

Private Sub cmdOk_Click()
intResult = vbOK
Me.Hide
End Sub

Public Sub mkLookup(strWord As String)
txtEnglish.Enabled = False
txtEnglish.BackColor = &H80000011
txtFiction.Text = strWord
End Sub

Public Sub mkRLookup(strWord As String)
txtFiction.Enabled = False
txtFiction.BackColor = &H80000011
Me.Caption = "Reverse " & Me.Caption
txtEnglish.Text = strWord
End Sub

Public Sub mkAddEntry(strWord As String)
Me.Caption = "Add Dictionary Entry"
txtFiction.Text = strWord
End Sub

Public Sub mkDelEntry(strWord As String)
Me.Caption = "Remove Dictionary Entry"
txtEnglish.Enabled = False
txtEnglish.BackColor = &H80000011
txtFiction.Text = strWord
End Sub

Property Get Englishword() As String
Dim Englishwords As Variant
Englishwords = Split(Trim(txtEnglish.Text)) ' remove leading spaces and get words
If (UBound(Englishwords) <> -1) Then
Englishword = LCase(Englishwords(0))
Else
Englishword = ""
End If
End Property

Property Get Fictionword() As String
Dim Fictionwords As Variant
Fictionwords = Split(Trim(txtFiction.Text)) ' remove leading spaces and get words
Fictionword = Fictionwords(0)
If (UBound(Fictionwords) <> -1) Then
Fictionword = LCase(Fictionwords(0))
Else
Fictionword = ""
End If
End Property

Property Let EnglishText(strWord)
txtEnglish.Text = strWord
End Property

Property Let FictionText(strWord)
txtFiction.Text = strWord
End Property

The Form

--------

* AB runs afoul of one of the programming concepts he has the most difficulty with
AB: Passing variables from one subroutine to another.
* AB tries passing the variables explicitly
* AB (not surprisingly) gets an error
AB: Ah-HAH
* AB gets that working
AB: w00t
* AB does The Dance(tm)
* shodan cheers!
shodan: What'd ya have to do?
AB: Forgot to hand the variables off to the main function when I called it.
AB: Call $FUNCTION_NAME
AB: Sposed to be "Call $FUNCTION_NAME (list of passed variables)"
shodan: Hm.
AB: As with most of my code, it's ugly, but it works.
shodan: If you're doing it that way, it doesn't /sound/ like a global variable
AB: Yeah.
AB: It isn't.
AB: Really.
shodan: But I can kinda see how it works.
AB: I'm declaring 'em locally within the first procedure.
AB: (And I'm also declaring them publically in the main procedure. I expect the world to implode any moment now.)
AB: Nah. I'm just not grokking the syntax.
AB: There's a way to do it.
AB: Where you just make the one public declaration.
AB: Thought I remembered how I'd done it in the past.
AB: But NOOOooooOoOOOOOOo
* AB sets his brane on fire
shodan: Doncha need that?
AB: Not doing me a lot of good right now.
* AB passes his variables to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT procedure
shodan: That'll show 'em.

--------

AB: Doh
AB: <Assignment instructions> Make sure to do error trapping. If I enter "asdf" into the box asking for temperature, your program should catch it.
AB: <AB> 'kay
AB: * AB writes an If/Then thingy which features "If IsNumeric($VARIABLE) = False Then..."
AB: * AB tests his code by typing random letters in the Temperature box.
AB: <Program> TYPE MISMATCH, PH00L!
shodan: * AB types "mismatch" <program> Type mismatch <AB> I just did!