using ShowDialog

I have a MDI Parent Form with a menu bar. The user can open the forms they need from here. The problem I'm having is with a MDI form you can't use ShowDialog on a child form, so if you want to open the same form a 100 times, you can. Is there a way to stop this or at least test to see if the form is already open?

thanks,
eye

i guess you could check to see if the form class for thta form is nothing

Code:

---

If yourformcalssname Is Nothing Then
  ' Load the form
Else
  ' Dont load the form
End If

---

This is perhaps not as elegant a solution but it works for me. I have a function that rifles thru the MDI childforms to find a prior instance like this:

VB Code:

' Check for previous instance of the child form and activate it if found, otherwise return False
    Friend Function fCheckInstance(ByRef frmParent As Form, ByRef szChild As String) As Boolean
 
        fCheckInstance = True
 
        Dim frmInstanceCheck As Form
        ' See if the form is already open
        For Each frmInstanceCheck In frmParent.MdiChildren
            If frmInstanceCheck.Text = szChild Then
                frmInstanceCheck.Activate()
                Exit Function
            End If
        Next
 
        fCheckInstance = False
 
    End Function

I call it when the user attempts to open a child form thusly:

VB Code:

If Not fCheckInstance(Me, "MasterEdits") Then
   Dim frm As New MasterEdits()
   frm.MdiParent = Me
   frm.Show()
End If