An MSForms (all VBA) treeview for Access, Excel And Word
Content
Introduction
If you have ever used the Treeview control from the "Additional controls"
section, then you know what a versatile control this is to show hierarchically
organized data. There are a couple of problems with this Treeview control:
- Compile errors due to a difference in how the control libraries
are registered in 32 bits Windows' System32 and 64 bit Windows' SysWOW64
folders. If you distribute a file that was saved in 64 bit Windows,
containing one of the "Microsoft Windows Common Controls 6.0" (The Treeview
control is one of them) and with the reference set to "mscomctl.ocx",
people using 32 bit Windows will almost certainly have problems. At
best it could entail removing both the control and the reference and
replacing both, but at worst the user's Excel can crash when trying
to load the file and run the app.
- The standard Treeview control, like all non built-in ActiveX controls,
cannot be used in 64 bit versions of Office.
Especially the second point convinced me to develop a custom-made
Treeview "control", that only uses the native Office forms controls. A couple of weeks
after I started building this I tricked Peter
Thornton into helping me with it.
The screenshot below shows both our new Treeview (left) and the Windows
one (right) side-by-side in their simplest display mode (read on, there
are even prettier screenshots further down the page):
Two treeviews, left: VBA tree, right: Common controls tree
In the following pages I'll show what our treeview can do and explain
how to put it to use in your own VBA project.
MAC Office and 64 bit
Office Compatible!
Our Treeview works in all versions of Excel, Access and Word; from Office
2007 to 2019 and 365, for Windows and Mac, 32bit and 64bit. It also works
in some earlier versions though you would need to adapt the demos made for
2007 and later.
Windows screenshot:
Treeview demo on Windows Excel
Mac screenshot:
Screenshot of treeview on Mac Excel 2011
Acknowledgements
The basic plumbing and code structure of this treeview control was devised
by me. However, without the help of my friend and fellow (former) Excel MVP Peter Thornton,
lots of functionality would not have been available now. For that I sincerely
thank Peter!
Furthermore, Access MVP
Ben Clothier was kind
enough to make the necessary adjustments to incorporate the treeview in
an Access form
Also: Fellow Excel MVP
Ron De Bruin
ensured the treeview also works on MAC Office 2011, Thanks Ron!
Copyright and Licensing
All code in the treeview is (c) JKP Application Development Services
and Peter Thornton (the Authors). It remains our sole intellectual property.
However, we're offering this treeview to you at no cost. You get an unrestricted
license for use in any VBA project you like. You're free to modify any part
of the code at will.
We do request that you:
- Keep our comments in place.
- Do not remove our names, url's or email addresses from the code.
- Send us your praise and your comments.
- Send us any functional additions you do to the treeview.
And please mention the source of the treeview (including a link to this
page) in your helpfile, manual and/or on your about screen.
We're always interested to see how people have implemented the VBA Treeview.
So please feel free to send a screenshot with a brief description or relevant
details.
Disclaimer
You use this control at your own risk: The authors accept no liability
whatsoever for any damages which may arise due to the use of our treeview.
Donations
Many, many hours were spent developing this treeview. Although we developed
it for use in our own projects, we are giving it away for free!
Nevertheless, we would really be pleased if you actually express your
appreciation in a more "tangible" form. So here is a paypal donation button
at your disposal:
Download
The Excel workbook contains most of the documentation (on
the tabs of the workbook), so I recommend you to at least download the Excel
version. The Access version has instructions on its main form (click the
"How do I...?" button) on how to implement the treeview in your own projects.
Download the treeview sample Excel workbook (including documentation)
(build 026.5, 10 Jan 2023, downloaded 50.609 times)
Download the treeview sample Word document (build 026.5, 10 Jan 2023,
downloaded 17.118 times)
Download the treeview sample Access database (build 026.5, 10 Jan
2023,
downloaded 41.933 times)
‘Pro’ Treeview and ListGrid VBA controls
If your project needs more features and/or better performance than
our free treeview, or if you need a listgrid control you've come to the
right place as well.
The professional version of the treeview control has exceptional performance.
Even with tens of thousands of nodes it will load quickly and remain highly
responsive. It also has several new features including drag and drop. Timing
experiments have shown that the pro version of our treeview outperforms
the common controls treeview.
Our new ListGrid combines most of the functionality of the ActiveX Listview
and Flexgrid controls with many extra useful features. It is the result
of extensive beta testing by some of our treeview users, thanks guys!
The screenshot of the demo below gives an idea of just some of its capability.
The Pro Treeview and ListGrid are available for 32/64 bit Excel and Access.
The Excel version will also work in Mac, one or two features are disabled
for Mac but we’re working on it. Unlike our free treeview they are self
contained in their own files and designed to work more like real controls.
For more details and if interested in a trial license to try either of
these ‘controls’ please contact us:
Pro Treeview
enquiry
Pro Listgrid
enquiry
Please note that the pro versions are paid versions. Pricing available
upon request by using the links above (The download files above contain
a Word document which also gives more details about the pro controls).
Content
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Features
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How To Use
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Examples
Other controls
Another often used control is the calendar control. This control has
the added problem that it has been deprecated with Office 2010 (where we're
supposed to use the date picker control).
Frankens Team created
an all-vba alternative using very similar techniques to what we've done
here.
Ron de Bruin created a
Date Picker
control for MAC Excel.
