Hover Messages

[Phil H.]

MS Excel 2003, Workbook name “2008 Results.â€

In worksheet named “Inventory,†Column M has alpha-numeric codes - the
worksheet contains 8000+ rows.

In worksheet named “Function Codes,†365 a-n codes are held in column B,
with their corresponding text descriptions in column C.

What is needed: when the user hovers the cursor over a cell in “Inventoryâ€
column M, Excel finds the a-n code in worksheet “Function Codes†column B,
and displays the corresponding text from column C the same way as in a
hyperlink “Screen Tip.â€

Finally, the user must be able to click on a column M cell, make an a-n code
change, and the new text description appear when hovering over the changed
cell (after the correction has been entered).

What would the macro code be and where would it be placed?

 

[Peter T]

Tricky, not impossible but effectively not viable.

There are no directly trappable mouse over or hover events in cells. Using a
timer could periodically check mouse coordinates every (say) 0.2 sec' and if
same conclude the mouse is stationary (could sub class windows mouse events
but not stable in VBA).

Having determined the mouse is not moving next task is to relate mouse
coordinates to cell, it is doable with one of three distinct approaches (not
sure about xl2007) but none are straightforward.

Then the final task is to display something like a tooltip, rather than a
form or some other object. I'm almost sure there is no way to do that purely
with VBA.

Of course, could do almost anything in a selection change event (except the
tool tip, temporary dynamic comment perhaps).

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Phil H.]

Thanks, Pete - not encouraging at this point. "Normal" users will not be
able to remember 365 codes. Can you think of another way to approach to the
problem? Could a lookup be used somehow? Or maybe a dropdown in the header
row?

 

[Peter T]

Have you considered using Data Validation / List in all your input cells,
where the list refers to your codes (could be a ref or a named range).

In the next column you could have a lookup formula that returns the
description based on the code in the input cell (or blank if code cell is
empty).

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Phil H.]

Peter, I think "List" may be the idea. I will play with the validation
idea. In the meantime, I was wondering if we can go behind the scenes and
add a second column to the filter dropdown list. This would be perfect, if
doable, because of the many many columns with codes. The further I get into
this, the more I think I will press for converting this to Access - after the
current situation passes.

 

[Roger Govier]

Hi Phil

Following on from Peter's idea, I have played about with adding comments to
the cell.
If you have a List (in my case on Sheet2 column A) for your DV items, with a
list of descriptions for those items along side in column B (Sheet2), then
the following event code on your sheet with the DV (Sheet1), will insert the
comment to the cell depending upon what has been selected.
Hovering over the cell will cause the Comment to be displayed.

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(By Val Target As Range)
Dim messg As String
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A:A")) Is Nothing Then
messg = WorksheetFunction.Index(Sheets("Sheet2").Range("B:B"), _
WorksheetFunction.Match(Target.Value,
Sheets("Sheet2"). _
Range("A:A"), 0))
On Error Resume Next
Target.Cells.AddComment
Target.Cells.Comment.Visible = False
Target.Cells.Comment.Text Text:="" & Chr(10) & messg
On Error GoTo 0
End If
End Sub

Obviously, change the ranges to suit your situation.

 

[Phil H.]

Hi Again Roger - we met in London 2006 at the Excel conference, I'm the fly
fisherman – gave thought to staying at your place in spring ’07.

Will try the comment idea – seems totally feasible. Is there a way to
eliminate the red comment symbol in the upper right corner? Might require
some sort of search macro to identify cells with comments and, say,
temporarily apply a background color. These symbols could make the worksheet
very “busy,†adding confusion to beginning users.

Basically, my purpose is to give users an on-screen definition of a code
(there are many columns with similar situations), without having to search
elsewhere for the information. Again, I'm dealing with 89 columns and 8000+
rows (admittedly way too much), so my current task is to make the worksheet a
user-friendly environment - which currently it is not. The user's task is to
go through the 722,000+ cells and clean out errors - where incompatible codes
exist (on a row). I’m putting together a code matrix to set the rules for
the exercise. Will probably be looking for help next week after I receive
the latest spreadsheet. So, for now users are filtering and with a very
short lead time for scrub completion, on-screen helps seem my only
contribution. If you have any other ideas, let me know. Meanwhile, I’ll try
the comments macro. This is a neat idea for other worksheets – will put it
in my library. Thanks for the help, Roger.

 

[Phil H.]

Here is the setup, and my code modification:

Sheet 1 - “FY08 Inventory†Sheet 2 - “Code Matrixâ€
T B C
1 Code Code Description (row 1 - headers)
2 230 200 Desc 200
3 245 201 Desc 201
* * * *
8119 Z234 Z999 Desc Z999

Sheet 1 column T is DV target column

Code entered behind “FY08 Inventory†worksheet. Should it be elsewhere, say
in Module 1?

'Enter comment from external list in target cell.

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(By Val Target As Range)
Dim messg As String
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("T:T")) Is Nothing Then
Message = WorksheetFunction.Index(Sheets("Code Matrix").Range("B:B"), _
WorksheetFunction.Match(Target.Value, _
Sheets("Code Matrix"). _
Range("C:C"), 0))
On Error Resume Next
Target.Cells.AddComment
Target.Cells.Comment.Visible = False
Target.Cells.Comment.Text Text:="" & Chr(10) & messg
On Error GoTo 0
End If
End Sub

Compile error: “Expected: list separator or )â€
First line of code, Private…, is red

 

[Roger Govier]

Hi Phil
I remember you well. With just the H of your surname as your ID, I hadn't
picked up that it was you.
I trust all is well in Italy.

Take a look at the code Debra Dalgleish has about handling comments, on her
site.
http://www.contextures.com/xlcomments03.html

As Debra says, there is no way of switching off the indicator, but you could
use her trick of drawing a triangle shape of matching size and placing over
the indicator. If you set the colour to NoFill, then that may help.
Debra shows code for applying and removing the shapes.

If you would like, feel free to send me a sample of what you are trying to
do, with some further detail, and I would be more than happy to take a look
and see if I can come up with any other ideas.

In case you have lost my email address it is
roger at technology4u dot co dot uk

 

[Roger Govier]

Phil

It works fine for me here.
Are you using an Italian version of Excel?
Are your separators ; rather than ,

 

[Roger Govier]

For the benefit of the archives, I received a copy of the file direct from
Phil.

I hadn't noticed in the posting, be had introduced a space into By Val
instead of ByVal.
That accounted for the line showing red in the VBE.
Also, Phil had adjusted the wrong ranges for the Index match.
In his scenario it needed to be
messg = WorksheetFunction.Index(Sheets("Code Matrix").Range("C:C"), _
WorksheetFunction.Match(Target.Value, Sheets("Code
Matrix"). _
Range("B:B"), 0))

 

[Peter T]

Hello again,

I'm not really following what it is that needs to be displayed in something
like a tool tip that can't be done similarly (well not quite the same) with
a dropdown.

If the dropdown approach is not viable, and the comment not ideal (or how
about a callout) it should be possible to display a form next to the cell
that has the mouse hovering over it (not necessarily the selected cell),
with whatever info on the form as relates to the cell.

The modeless form could be made to look like a tooltip, and disappear when
the mouse moves again. Tricky and a bit of work but feasible.

Regards,
Peter T