Highlighting the current row in a Datasheet

[Mark L]

I frequently use side-by-side datasheets, where clicking on a record on left one displays related detail in the left. When moving from tab to tab on a form, however, sometimes it is not immediately evident which record on left has been selected. So I wanted to highlight it. I've done this on continuous forms, but until now I couldn't do it for a datasheet.

The technique is very simple. Let's assume the recordsource for your "left" datasheet has a field named CustomerID, and that it is the unique record identifier. Put a textbox in the form's header, and name it [txtRecordID]. In the current event of your form, you need this line of code:

    txtRecordID = Me.CustomerID[/code]

Then you need to add a Conditional Format to each control on the datasheet. You can select all the controls at once and enter this:

    Expression Is    [CustomerID]=[txtRecordID]

Then, select a different BackColor.

[HansV]

Thanks, Mark!

[JohnH]

I was doing something similar yesterday with a Continuous Form.

It was a while since I had done this, so I needed to remember just what to do. In my first attempt, I just set the Control Source of the control in the Header to: =me.ChildID. Sure enough it displayed the correct ID as I moved between records, but the conditional formatting did not work. (All rows displayed the conditional format.)

But once I set the value in the On Current event (as Mark suggests) it did work.

Why does it not work using the first method?

[HansV]

Why does it not work using the first method?

It might be a timing problem, but that's just a guess. I don't know for sure.