How to set a timer in a UserForm Textbox? - excel

Question

I have a code that works perfectly but I have to click on the command button to activate it.
What I want is for the timer to run automaticaly when I open the workboox/UserForm.
When the timer reach 0 seconds, I want the workbook to automatically close using
Workbooks("OUTIL_CRN.xlsm").Save
Workbooks("OUTIL_CRN.xlsm").Close
This is the code that works with a commmand button:
In a module:
Public Const AllowedTime As Double = 1
In the Userform:
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim userClickedPause As Boolean ' Gets set to True by the Pause button
Dim stopTime As Date
userClickedPause = False
' If AllowedTime is the number of minutes with a decimal part:
stopTime = DateAdd("s", Int(AllowedTime * 600), Now) ' add seconds to current time
' If AllowedTime is the number of seconds:
'stopTime = DateAdd("s", AllowedTime, Now) ' add seconds to current time
Do
With UserForm1.TextBox1
.Value = Format(stopTime - Now, "Nn:Ss")
End With
DoEvents
If userClickedPause = True Then
Exit Do
End If
Loop Until Now >= stopTime
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
userClickedPause = True
End Sub

Answer 1

A lot depends on how you're showing the form. If you have this:
UserForm1.Show
Then the form is modal, the default instance is shown, and you could handle the Activate event to execute code as soon as the dialog becomes active.
If you have this:
UserForm1.Show vbModeless
Then the form isn't modal, and the Activate event will be a problem, because the timer will then re-initialize whenever the user clicks on the form after deactivating it by clicking somewhere else on the screen.
If you have this:
With New UserForm1
.Show
End With
Then the TextBox1.Text property isn't being assigned on the instance that's being shown, and the box remains empty. However with that we now fully control when the form object gets created and destroyed, and now we can handle the Initialize event (fired once per instance, when the object is first created) because we know that the form object has just been created... but then, the form won't ever be shown, because the only available thread is busy with that Do...Loop, and while it allows the dialog's message pump to pump events (thanks to DoEvents), if the form isn't shown by the time that loop is entered, then no other code gets to run - so, firing that loop in an Initialize handler would be a very bad idea.
Consider looking into leveraging Application.OnTime to schedule the execution of a procedure: what you want to do, is to say "invoke DoStuff in 1 second", and then resume executing whatever - not busy-looping, rather letting the form's message loop do its job. See this post for one of many examples.