ACC97: No Prompt for Parameter Value Exporting Form with OutputTo (170699)

SYMPTOMS

You are not prompted to enter a parameter value when you output a form to text if the form is bound to a query that contains an invalid form control reference on its Criteria row. However, the text file that is created does not contain any data.

RESOLUTION

To ensure that the text file that is created contains data, use explicit form control referencing in your query, or use the control's Value property. For example:

   Forms![FormName].[ControlName]

   -or-

   Forms![FormName]![Controlname].Value

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the OutputTo action or method to output the data in a specified Microsoft Access database object (a datasheet, form, report, or module) to a file in Microsoft Excel 97 (*.xls), MS-DOS text (*.txt), or rich-text (*.rtf) format.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
Create a query based on the Customers Table. Add all the fields to the query.
Add the following criteria to the CustomerID field and save the query as Query1:
```
       Forms![Form100]![Customer]
						
```
Note that the query contains criteria which contains an invalid reference to a control called Customer.
Create a form in Design view based on the Query1 query. Save the form as Form100.

Create a module and type the following procedure in the module:

      Sub Test()

        DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputForm, "Form100", acFormatTXT, "C:\Junk.txt"

      End Sub

Execute the procedure. Note that you are not prompted to enter a parameter value for the missing control's data, and a blank text file is created.