Access Conditional Formatting - Fewer VBA Options over user interface? - ms-access

Question

The problem is that while the front-end allows 4 or more conditions, when I tried to set conditions using VBA, I ran into an error when setting the 4th condition. In other words, if I only tried to set 3 conditions in the code, then the code worked fine.
I am using MS Access 2010. I need to set conditional formatting for two textboxes on a continuous form. I know that older versions of MS Access allowed only 3 conditions on a textbox, but I know that I can get more conditions in Access 2010. My current application has 4 conditions using the user interface. In my research on this question, one person said that later versions of MS Access allow up to 50 conditions. I could not confirm this either way, even when I reviewed the Access 2010 specifications page. But I know I can at least get more than 3 conditions.
Here is the test code that works for up to 3 records:
Function fApplyConditionFormatNow()
Dim objFormatConds As FormatCondition
Dim i As Integer 'index number for specific format conditions
Dim stSQL As String 'query to get list of categories
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
i = 0
'clear out just in case FormatConditions accidentially got saved
'with the form at some point.
Me.ID.FormatConditions.Delete
'get a recordset containing the formatting information
'(ie, get RGB values for each category type)
stSQL = "SELECT * FROM tblTestConditionalFormatting;"
fRunSQL stSQL, rs 'fRunSQL is custom code that gets runs stSQL and returns the recordset
'loop through recordset to get conditional formatting values
Do Until rs.EOF
'create a condition on textbox named "ID". The condition will be for
'the Category/Type (TypeNm) that's up now in the recordset.
Set objFormatConds = Me.ID.FormatConditions.Add(acExpression, , "[TypeNm] = '" & rs!TypeNm & "'")
'add formatting for the condition just created.
With Me.ID.FormatConditions(i)
.BackColor = RGB(rs!RGB1, rs!RGB2, rs!RGB3)
End With
i = i + 1
rs.MoveNext
Loop
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
End Function
When 4 records are included in the category table : ie, tblTestConditionalFormatting, I get the following error:
"Runtime error 7966: The format condition you specified is greater than the number of format conditions."
So, there appears to be a bug in that the front-end can handle more than 3 conditions but the VBA object can only handle 3 conditions? OR maybe I'm doing something wrong. Has anyone else come across this? Do you have an idea for a work around?
Thank you!!

Answer 1

Instead of With Me.ID.FormatConditions(i), use the FormatCondition object that you just created:
Set objFormatConds = Me.ID.FormatConditions.Add(acExpression, , "[TypeNm] = '" & rs!TypeNm & "'")
'add formatting for the condition just created.
With objFormatConds
.BackColor = RGB(rs!RGB1, rs!RGB2, rs!RGB3)
End With
You don't need i anymore.
I have similar code that goes (simplified) like this:
For i = 1 To 6
lColor = DLookup("Color", "someTable", "p_Color_ID = " & i)
Set objFrc = txtFld.FormatConditions.Add(acExpression, , "[ColorGroup] = '" & i & "'")
objFrc.BackColor = lColor
Next i
Edit
Apparently you can edit the FormatConditions >= 3 if you don't touch 0..2:
https://access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=271679
Maybe I have something like this... :/