Form.Show not working properly

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VB.Net Express 2008. Windows forms application. Application frame work disabled.

Following is my code:

Module Module1

Sub main()

Dim frm1 As New Form1

frm1.Show()

Dim xl As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application

xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")

xl.Visible = True

frm1.Hide()

End Sub

End Module

I want to show a Wait message while Excel is being opened.

The form does not show properly. All the labels and text boxes show as 'holes' displaying the desktop instead of text inside it.

Posted 6-Mar-12 9:16am

SanganakSakha

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Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 1 · 2012-03-06T09:19:00

Solution 1

Since you're runnint from Main instead of letting the framework do it, you have to launch the form differntly to setup the app's message pump.

Instead of Form.Show, you do this:

Dim frm1 As New Form1
Application.Run(frm1)

Application.Run is a blocking call, so no code after it will execute until the form is closed.

Posted 6-Mar-12 9:19am

Dave Kreskowiak

Comments

SanganakSakha 6-Mar-12 16:16pm

That's exactly I don't want to do - block the following code.

I want to display a Wait message (using the form) until Excel is opened and hide it as soon as Excel is opened. So I want Excel to open while the message is being displsyed.

I could do it without any problem in VB6 with simple frm1.show as against frm1.show(vbModal).

Dave Kreskowiak 6-Mar-12 17:06pm

OK, so scrap this. If all you're doing is starting Excel with a "please wait" dialog over it you can do that quite easily.

Start a new project and in the start up Form, put a button. This button will start Excel but only after it creates an instance of the "Please Wait..." form and Show it.

Private Sub Start_Button(...) Handles StartButton.Click
Dim waitForm As New PleaseWaitForm
waitForm.Show

' I can't believe I'm doing this!
Application.DoEvents()

Dim xl As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application

xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xl.Visible = True

waitForm.Hide()
End Sub

SanganakSakha 6-Mar-12 18:16pm

I'm sorry but starting Excel is not the main activity in my program.

I do lot of of processing before opening Excel. I then open Excel and and then do lot of processing. I'm doing all this inside the main().

I just want to display a message to keep the user engaged while user waits for excel to open in the background(invisible). I don't necessarily want to use a form if there is any other alternative available.

I thought, using a non-modal form would be very simple. It doesn't seem to be so.