Unofficial Access Stuff

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2010-03-13T18:51:00.001-08:00

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Database Genisis

2010-02-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

Gotta start somewhere

Microsoft has a tutorial on how to create a database.

Office.Microsoft.com

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Navigate Navigation Pane

2010-02-19T03:05:00.000-08:00

Ahoy

Here's the Microsoft tutorial:

Meet the Navigation Pane

Also:

"We have heard a few of you have missed the ALT D shortcut to open an object in design. As you know, ALT in ribbon apps now allows you to access ribbon shortcuts. Next time you want to open an object in design view, try Control Enter."

Navigation pane tip

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Custom QAT

2010-02-18T03:32:00.000-08:00

Access additions

Applications put most of the most-used commands on the Home tab's Ribbon, not everything is there. You may want to add Close, Close All, or Print commands, for example.

In the upper Left corner is the Quick Access Tool bar.

To update the QAT:
Click the down-pointing arrow to the right of the QAT.
Choose any common commands (New, Close, Print, etc.) by checking the option.

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Access Communities

2010-02-10T03:52:00.000-08:00

It takes a village

Here are some links the Access groups. Someone has probably asked your question before.
Access Communities

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Command Reference

2010-02-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

2003-2007-2010

Those of you that are just now making the switch to the Ribbon world, will find this valuable.

ComputerWorld.com

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access

Office Training

2010-02-02T03:57:00.000-08:00

Suggestions

TechRepublic lists a number of areas that you might explore when training is needed for a new Office version.

Here are a few:

LINKS TO TIP SHEETS AND ARTICLES
"Instead of telling your users to go out to Microsoft.com and do a search, put hyperlinks to the printer-friendly version of tip sheets and articles on your company’s main portal page. Providing links to information you know they need will help you cover the training bases. And presenting the links on an internal web site they already use will show your users that it’s okay to go outside of their four firewalls to learn something new. Include your favorite hyperlink in your signature line so it goes out in every e-mail you send."
ONLINE TRAINING
E-LEARNING
WEBCASTS
VIRTUAL TRAINING
MULTILINGUAL SCREENTIPS AND TRANSLATIONS
COMMAND REFERENCE GUIDES
OFFICE ONLINE AT WORK

10 ways to train your users on Office 2007 for free

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Where's the Temp[late

2010-01-26T03:49:00.000-08:00

Find and/change storage spots

Describes the different template categories and the locations of templates in 2007 Office programs. Also describes the registry settings that control where to find your custom templates.

Support.Microsoft.com

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access

Access Transition Tutorials

2010-01-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

Available in PDF

This collection relates to the transition to 2007, but most are also appropriate for 2010.

"The main intent of these tutorials is to guide frequent users of Microsoft Access through the transition of earlier versions to the new 2007 edition. Throughout the different tutorials . . . topics from program specifications through features added, dropped, or unchanged as well as demonstrating implementations of subjects discussed."

Microsoft Access 2007 in the box (Office editions and what's new)
Microsoft Access Head-to-Head (Access 2003 vs. Access 2007)
Microsoft Access Side-by-Side (Access 2003 vs. Access 2007 continued)
Microsoft Access 2007 PDF and XPS support
Microsoft Access 2007 Ribbon/Office menu customization
Microsoft Access 2007 Navigation Pane customization
Microsoft Access 2007 Working with the Attachment DataType
Microsoft Access 2007 Working with the Rich Text Feature
Microsoft Access 2007 Collect Data Through Emails

Access-Freak.comSee all Topicsaccess

Merge Access with Word

2010-01-11T03:43:00.000-08:00

Database integration

"You can merge Microsoft Office Access 2007 data with a Word 2007 document by using the Mail Merge Wizard. This demo shows you how to create a simple form letter and how to troubleshoot problems. You can also use this feature to create address labels or any other type of Word document in which you want to display Access data."

Office.Microsoft.com

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Automate Shutdown

2010-01-07T03:01:00.000-08:00

Close everything

It's generally considered good form to close all forms and reports when you're shutting down a database.
Here's a link to some code that takes care of it for you.

TechRepublic.com

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Keyboard and Key Tips

2010-01-03T03:55:00.000-08:00

Finger it out

2007 apps look different because of the ribbon, but the keyboard can still be used to speed up tasks.
Microsoft has an online course that may help

After completing this course you will be able to:
Accomplish tasks by using sequential shortcut keys, known as Key Tips, shown on the Ribbon.
Navigate around the Ribbon using the TAB key and arrow keys.
Accomplish tasks by using key combinations — keys you press at the same time - exactly as you've done in previous versions of Office.

Office.Microsoft.com/Training

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Close Forms

2009-12-29T03:41:00.000-08:00

Auto Shutdown

Here's how to close a form after it’s used:

Open the first form in Design view.
Double-click the Form Properties button.
Click on the Event tab.
Click in the On Deactivate text box.
Select Event Procedure.
Click the Build button.
At the prompt, enter: Me.TimerInterval =1.
(Try something like 30000 milliseconds)
Press [Alt][Q].
In the Form Properties window, click in the On Timer property text box.
Select Event Procedure.
Click the Build button.
At the prompt, enter: DoCmd.Close.
Press [Alt][Q].
Save the form.

TechRepublic

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access

List Fields in Access Tables

2009-12-24T03:33:00.000-08:00

Bit o' code

When viewing a table that has many fields in Design view, you have to scroll up and down to review the field names.

This can be tiresome when you're referring to them constantly, and particularly when you're working with several tables.

The following code produces a field listing for a given table. This can then be copied to Notepad and printed for easy reference.

Enter the code into a module, substituting your table's name where appropriate.

Open the Debug/Immediate window, type ListFields,

Press Enter to produce the listing.

Sub ListFields()
Dim dbs As DATABASE
Dim dbfield As Field
Dim tdf As TableDef

Set dbs = CurrentDb
Set tdf = dbs.TableDefs!NAMEOFYOURTABLE

Debug.Print ""
Debug.Print "Name of table: "; tdf.Name
Debug.Print ""

For Each dbfield In tdf.Fields
Debug.Print dbfield.Name
Next dbfield
End Sub

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Combo Box Queries

2009-12-17T03:25:00.000-08:00

How to

Parameter queries add flexibility to filtering records in a database. To make it easy, take a look at this approach from Martin Green's Office Tips site:

Drop down box in a Parameter Query

Build a dialog box with as many combo boxes as you need.
Design a query to read its criteria from the information on the dialog box.
Create a macro or visual basic procedure to tell them both what to do.

Also:
Base Combo Box on Parameter Query to Filter Values

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Hungarian Notation

2009-12-11T03:33:00.000-08:00

Belépés

This tip is useful in a number of applications.

When you name an object, include a prefix that identifies the type of object.

When naming a table for Customers, use "tblCustomers" .
You could also have a form for customers. It would be "frmCustomers" .

It's called Hungarian notation because with the prefix, it does not look like an English word.

Dr. Charles Simonyi developed the convention at Microsoft, and he is from Hungary.

He wrote an article on Hungarian notation for MSDN, the Microsoft Developer's Network.

Hungarian notation

Here are some prefixes:

tbl- Table
qry- Query
frm- Form
rpt- Report

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access

Control Access Text Alignment

2009-11-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

Distribute Text Evenly Within Controls

When you add form or report controls, the Text Align property defaults to General setting: characters align to the left while numbers and dates align to the right.

When you set up controls to act as headings or titles, you can achieve interesting visual results by changing the Text Align setting to Distribute (This is called Justify in Word).

This setting distributes characters within the control evenly to span its entire width.

If you apply this setting to a textbox control, the alignment switches to Left alignment when you click inside the control to allow for easy data entry.

General (Default): The text aligns to the left; numbers and dates align to the right.
Left: The text, numbers, and dates align to the left.
Center: The text, numbers, and dates are centered.
Right: The text, numbers, and dates align to the right.
Distribute: The text, numbers, and dates are evenly distributed.

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Color News

2009-11-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

A multidiscipline subject

Here is a study about how color effects a reader's choice of concentration.

It was intended for newspaper publishers, but the same knowledge can be used in Web design, PowerPoint, or any other reporting application. Word and Excel will also benefit.

Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design

ColorProject

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists.
Poynter.org

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Link to Office Documents from Access

2009-11-13T03:44:00.000-08:00

Click to Word, PowerPoint, Excel

You can create hyperlinks in Access that jump to other Office documents. The process of specifying the document and the bookmark you want to jump to can be cumbersome.

There's an easy way to specify where in a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document that a hyperlink should jump to, without even having to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

Open the target document and the Access table that contains a hyperlink field.
Select some of the text at the beginning where you want the hyperlink to jump.
Hold down the Ctrl key, drag the selection to the Access hyperlink field you want to set up.
When you release the mouse button, the previously selected text is used as the hyperlink text and the link becomes active.

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Change Code to Comments

2009-11-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

Fast solution

When you're testing procedures, you can temporarily convert a block of VBA code to comments that will be ignored during a trial run.

Doing so manually by inserting an apostrophe before each line of code can be a real chore.

To simplify this task,

Open any module in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)
Choose View >Toolbars>Edit from the menu bar to display the Edit toolbar.
Select the lines of code that you want to turn into comments.
Click the Comment Block button on the Edit toolbar (it's the sixth button in from the right end of the toolbar).

Each line of the selected code is now preceded with an apostrophe. To convert the comments back to executable code, select the appropriate lines and click the Uncomment Block button, which is immediately to the right of the Comment Block button.

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Hiding Duplicates in Query Results

2009-10-31T03:12:00.000-07:00

Once is enough

It's easy to hide duplicate entries when you run a query, even though Access doesn't go out of its way to call attention to this ability.

Set up a query as usual using the design grid.
Choose View>Properties from the menu bar to display the Query Properties dialog box.
Change the Unique Values property to Yes.

Access displays unique records based on each field returned by the query.

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Export Formatted Sheets

2009-10-25T03:08:00.000-07:00

Access to Excel

Access provides an easy way to export data to Excel through the Office Links feature.

To use this feature, simply select a relevant database object and choose Tools>Office Links> Analyze It With Excel.

The worksheet Excel creates includes some minor formatting applied to the field headings that appear in row 1. Some formatting in your original Access database affects the worksheet cell formatting as well. For example, if you're exporting from a datasheet, gridline and font attributes are carried over to Excel. If you use the Office Links feature to export data behind a form, text box shading and font properties are applied.

The final result in Excel may not exactly match your Access data; however, you'll probably find that less work is required to get your Excel version of the data into an easily readable state.

In Office 2007-10 it's External Data>Excel

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Display Data Once

2009-10-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

Report Trick

Sometimes, you may have data that needlessly clutters a report.

For instance, suppose your report is listing the fields strCompany, strFirstName, and strLastName.

If there are multiple names listed for each company, and the report is sorted by company name, repeating the company information is unnecessary.

You may want to set a group header based on the company name, but there's an easier way to hide the redundant data.

Open the report in Design view.
Select the control that displays repetitive information.
Display the control's Property sheet.
Set the Hide Duplicates property equal to No.
Finally, Save and preview your report.

If the data in the modified control is the same as the data from the previous record, the control is hidden.

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Access to E-mail

2009-10-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

What's the Outlook?

Garry Robinson from GR-FX Pty Limited of Australia and Scott McManus from Skandus, have a tutorial about:

Processing E-Mail Orders using Outlook and Access.

They have include sample database downloads and the code needed to make the engine work.

"Using Microsoft Access and Outlook together can reduce manual processing of Ordering emails very substantially. I know this because sometimes it would take up to 15 minutes to undertake all the little steps of saving customer details into tables and newsletter lists. Also without software, it was very difficult to explain to other staff members what to do when an e-mail arrived. Now we can process the orders in a couple of minutes when Outlook email arrives in the correct folder."

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Copy Paste

2009-10-08T03:47:00.000-07:00

Excel tables

One way to create a new table in an Access database from information included in an Excel spreadsheet is to select the pertinent data on the spreadsheet, including the field names.

Copy the selection (Edit>Copy, or CTRL+C)

Switch back to Access .

With Tables objects being shown in the database window, choose Edit>Paste, or use the CTRL+V shortcut.

Access will ask if the first row contains the field names and then will paste the information as a new database table.

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