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MS Access 2003: Play a wav file (sound file) through the API when a button is clicked, based on a text box value

This MSAccess tutorial explains how to play a wav file (sound file) through the API when a button is clicked based on a text box value in Access 2003 (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

Question: In Microsoft Access 2003/XP/2000/97, I've set up a Form that displays all of the records from the WavFiles table. The WavFiles table has a column called WavFilename that contains the name of a wav file (without the .wav extension) on our file server.

I want to create a button on the Form that allows me to play the wav file that is displayed in the WavFilename field for the current record in the Form.

How can I do this?

Answer: It is possible to play wav files within your Access database. To do this, create a new Module and paste in the following VBA code:

Const SND_ASYNC = (1)
Const SND_NODEFAULT = (2)

Declare Function sndplaysound Lib "winmm.dll" Alias "sndPlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszSoundName As String, ByVal uFlags As Long) As Long

Public Sub API_PlaySound(pWavFile As String)

   Dim LResult As Long

   'Make a Windows API call to play a wav file
   LResult = sndplaysound(pWavFile, SND_NODEFAULT + SND_ASYNC)

End Sub

Your module should look like this:

Microsoft Access

Next, open your form in Design View and create a button. In this example, we've created a button called cmdPlay.

Microsoft Access

Right click on the button and select Properties from the popup menu.

Microsoft Access

When the Properties window appears, select the property called "On Click". A button with 3 dots should appear to the right of the property. Click on this button.

Microsoft Access

When the Choose Builder window appears, highlight Code Builder and click on the OK button.

Microsoft Access

Now enter the following code in the button's On Click event:

API_PlaySound "c:\Windows\media\" & WavFileName & ".wav"

The code above would play the wav file that is displayed in the WavFileName field on the Form. The wav file is found in the c:\Windows\media directory and the code appends the .wav extension to the end of the file name since it is stored in the database without the file extension information.

Microsoft Access

Now we'll take a look at the Form as a user would see it.

So if the user clicks on the button, Access will play the following wav file:

c:\Windows\media\chimes.wav
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