I am curious about the progress bar, but that battle is for another day. The VBA code actually ran without a single hiccup once I got past the progress bar not making progress.
I futzed with the code and tried a few things and eventually determined the progress bar was unnecessary for the moment. It crashed on the progress bar setting the value to zero, as in zero percent.
INSTALL FOXPRO 2.6 IN WINDOWS 7 UPDATE
It crashed on the silly progress bar update that runs as the letters are generated. CRASH! It is not what you are thinking if you are thinking the VBA code was not working. I did immediately think it was my opportunity to update to Visual FoxPro 9, which means no more Visual FoxPro 5 apps to support. I also used a couple ActiveX controls and had no idea how well it would work on Windows 7.
INSTALL FOXPRO 2.6 IN WINDOWS 7 DRIVERS
My greatest concern was the 32-bit ODBC drivers for Excel, followed by the VBA automation, and then the User Interface glitches we have seen in newer versions of Visual FoxPro on Aero. My response was: “I don’t have any idea the number of things that could go wrong.” Hmmm, a few versions of Office, lots of potential glitches with Aero, and a handful of ActiveX controls and FoxTools.FLL. So let me see, how much could go wrong with VFP 5 on Windows 7 64-bit, using Aero? The app uses Excel to import records via a remote view, and automates Word to generate letters and envelopes via VBA in Office 97. The app is so reliable I cannot convince the customer to upgrade it to Visual FoxPro 9. This customer is running a Visual FoxPro 5 app that I developed in 1997 and has run without major issues since then.
This computer is the only computer for the company and is close to 8 years old, and really did need to be replaced. You don’t think there will be any problems with your Visual FoxPro 5 app, do ya?” He is ordering me a new Windows 7 computer, and upgrading Office from Office 97 to 2010. My hardware person said the computer is too old and not worth fixing. But I dislike the calls that go something like this: “Rick, long time no see…heh, my computer got hit by a virus when the grandson played an Internet game on it over the weekend. Normally I like getting a phone call from them. We have worked together for some 13 years. I got a call from our longest term customer.