Choose your own location

Word

you can change the default location by going to Tools>Options. On the "File Locations" tab you can modify the storage location.

Excel

Tools>Options. On the "General" tab change the default location.

PowerPoint

uses Tools>Options and the "Save" tab.

Access

Tools>Options and the "General" tab for Databases and Projects

Publisher

Tools>Options "General".

Outlook

will make you take an underground tour into the Registry to change the location to save e-mail attachments.

FrontPage/Expression Web

appears to require the same sort of spelunking.

Labels: Customize, General

Speed up table creation with default field settings

When you add fields to a table, Access assumes you want to use a 50/255-character Text field by default. However, you may typically use a smaller field size or you may personally use Number fields more often than Text ones.

You can avoid having to change the size and data types for new fields by setting defaults that are appropriate to your own design habits. To do so:

1. Choose Tools> Options from the menu bar and switch to the Tables/Queries sheet.
   
   
2. Select the data type you use most from the Default Field Type dropdown list.
   
   
3. Set the Text and Number sizes you usually want to use in the Default Field Sizes panel and
   
   
4. Click OK.

Labels: Customize, Tables

Truncated Numbers

Access has a new option that will show octothorps when the column is too narrow to display the entire value. When this option is not enabled, you see only part of the values in a column rather than ####.

You'll find the selection under Access Options when you click the Office button.
Go to Current Database and make your choice.

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access

Labels: Customize, Entries

It's fitting

When you switch between Design and Form views, the size of the form is dictated by the size of the Design view window, not the size of the form sections.

You often need to expand the window to be able to see the rulers and scroll bars in addition to all of the sections. This means you're left with wasted space when viewing the form in Form view, assuming that you forget to shrink the window back down.

A solution to this annoyance is to use the Size To Fit Form feature.

Simply view the form in Form view and choose Window>Size To Fit Form from the menu bar. If your view of the form is maximized, the menu option will be unavailable and you'll need to click the Restore Window button on the form window to enable the choice.

Once Access has resized the form, you can save its current dimensions by clicking the Save button.

With Access 2007 go to the Office button, choose Access Options and click Overlapping Windows. The Size To Fit Form icon will appear on the Home tab.





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access

Labels: Customize, Forms, Tips

Brand your app

Labels: Customize, Tips

Oh, Fooey (F U I)

"One of the most exciting new developer features that Microsoft Office Access 2007 provides is the ability to customize the Office Fluent User Interface (UI) in your application.

The Office Fluent UI provides a new user model for exposing commands, and application navigation that is more discoverable and easier for users of the application.

You create XML to change the Ribbon, a component of the new Microsoft Office Fluent user interface (UI). You can create customization files in any text editor.

All applications that include the Office Fluent Ribbon use the same extensibility model, so you can reuse the same Office Fluent UI extensibility XML with a minimum of adjustments.

For example, you can reuse the custom XML you create for Access 2007 in Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007."

Labels: Customize

Works with other apps as well

Labels: Customize, Forms

Your choice

"This article shows you how to customize the way that Microsoft Office Access 2007 starts by adding switches and parameters to the startup command. For example, you can have Office Access 2007 open a specific file or run a specific macro when it starts."

Labels: Customize, General, Tips

Separate tables

"Even if all your data is in Access itself, consider using linked tables. Store all the data tables in one MDB file - the data file - and the remaining objects (queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules) in a second MDB - the application file.

In multi-user situations, each user receives a local copy of the application file, linked to the tables in the single remote data file."

• Maintenance: To update the program, just replace the application file.
  Since the data is in a separate file, no data is overwritten.
  
  
• Network Traffic: Loading the entire application (forms, controls, code, etc)across the network increases traffic making your interface slower.
  

• Static look-up data such as postal codes might be kept in its own file.
  
• Linked temporary tables might avoid the need to compact the application file.
  

From Allen Brown's tips for Access users

Access has a tool to do the splitting for you, go to:
Tools>Database Utilities Database Splitter

In Access 2007:

1. On the Database Tools tab, in the Move Data group, click Access Database.
   
2. In the Database Splitter dialog box, click Split Database.
   
3. Type a name for the back-end database, and then click Split.

Also:

Knowledgebase:
How to manually split a Microsoft Access database

MSDN:
About sharing an Access database on a network



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access

Labels: Customize, General

Change the look

"Learn how you can create a custom Office Fluent Ribbon for an Access 2007 database by using only Office Fluent extensibility markup XML and macros.

Discover how to create a command space without writing any code and also learn about more advanced scenarios that require code."

Customizing the Office Fluent User Interface

Customize the Ribbon



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access

Labels: 2007, Customize

Code vs. property

Many users have trouble knowing which text box on a form they're currently working with. One way to make it clear for users is to highlight the current one, for example, with a yellow background.

Access allows you to do this with conditional formatting, but you can also get a similar result using code.

To do so, create a new module and add the following code:

Function Highlight(Stat As String) As Integer
Dim ctrl As Control
On Error Resume Next
Set ctrl = Screen.ActiveControl
If Stat = "GotFocus" Then
    ctrl.BackColor = 65535
ElseIf Stat = "LostFocus" Then
    ctrl.BackColor = 16777215
End If
End Function

Save and close the module, then open the form you want to apply the highlighting to in Design view.

Click the Code button and insert

Highlight("GotFocus")

Highlight("LostFocus")

to each textbox's LostFocus event procedure.

When you've finished,save the changes, close the VBE, and switch to Form view.

When you tab to a field, it's shaded yellow. When you tab away from the field, its background is restored to white.



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access

Labels: Customize, Macros

In Datasheet view

When you're working in Datasheet View, you can easily hide columns containing data that you don't need to immediately work with.

To do so, select any field in the column and choose Format >Hide Columns from the menu bar.

As an alternative, right- click on the column's field name and select Hide Columns from the shortcut menu.

To redisplay hidden columns, select Format>Unhide Columns from the menu bar.
Then, select the check boxes next to the field names of any columns you want displayed and click OK.

You can select the Unhide Columns command even if no columns are hidden, allowing you to easily hide multiple columns by clearing the appropriate check boxes.



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access

Labels: Customize, General

Customize the Ribbon

"The ribbon UI presents a ton of new flexibility for us creating Access and for you building apps on top of Access that wasn't there before.

As described in the posts on the ribbons, there are a lot of new control types that can be placed in the ribbon, and there's much more flexibility about how they are presented.

The downside to this additional flexibility is that the ribbons are more complex to create than the old command bars. Building ribbons isn't beyond the reach of any successful Access user today, but it will take some more work.

The upside is that the end product can be significantly better."

Labels: Customize

Let the add-ins begin

Learn how to customize the Ribbon user interface (UI) in the 2007 Microsoft Office release. Also learn how new features in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System support RAD development of Ribbon customizations. (40 printed pages)

Labels: Customize