FMS developer Molly Pell is a guest blogger on the Microsoft Access developer blog. This post demonstrates a neat trick that you can use to filter a Continuous or Split form while your users are typing in a Combo Box.
Check out the post here: Using a Combo Box to Search as you Type
Choosing BetweenWe are often asked by Microsoft Office power users whether, why, and when they should use Microsoft Access versus Microsoft Excel. Especially when they are very comfortable using MS Excel and don’t understand the reasons why anyone would use MS Access or databases. We’ve written a new paper that describes the issues in detail:
For more information, visit Microsoft Access versus Microsoft Excel for Data Analysis and Reporting (Spreadsheets vs. Databases).
When working with ComboBoxes and ListBoxes, we often find the need to select the first item in the list by default. This can be done when the form loads, or when the rowsource values of the ListBox or ComboBox are changed.
We’ve written a new paper containing an explanation and sample database of how to do this with the ItemData(0) property.
Our example database contains a form with a ComboBox containing ProductCategoties, and a ListBox containing Products.
When the form loads, it selects the first Category in the list. When the Category is changed, the Products list is updated, and the first product is selected.
To learn more, read our tip on Microsoft Access Forms: Selecting the First Item in a ComboBox or ListBox and download our sample database.
In Microsoft Access, a common need is to have multiple combo boxes or list boxes on a form, and to have the selection in one combo box limit the choices in a second combo box or listbox. For example, consider an Address form containing State and City lookups. When you select a state, you want the list of cities list to be limited the selected state.
This is known as cascading combo boxes or synchronized combo boxes.
We recently posted a tip and demo database containing a sample of species, both plants and animals, categorized by their taxonomic rank (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, and genus). When you select the value “Animal” from the Kingdom combo box, the Phylum combo box is updated to only show Animal phylum. The Species list box is also filtered by your selection.
To learn more, read our page on Creating Cascading Combo Boxes and List Boxes on Microsoft Access Forms and download our sample database.
LinkedIn offers many opportunities for professionals to interact with each other. There are many groups available for the Microsoft Access, Azure, SQL Server, and Visual Studio .NET communities. Here are some of the vibrant groups we’ve discovered:
Professional Microsoft Access Developers’ Network (PMADN)
Excel and VBA Users
Microsoft Azure and SQL Server
Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint 2010 have a new feature that allows you to recover unsaved documents, even ones that you never saved. This expands on the Autosave feature that was available for years, but unlike earlier versions of MS Office, the automated backups are not deleted when you close your Office host. Additionally, multiple versions of your file are maintained, so that you can return to an earlier version of your document.
For more details, read our Microsoft Office tip, Recover unsaved documents or return to an earlier version of your document in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word 2010.
A new feature in Microsoft Excel 2010 lets you insert tiny charts, or Sparklines, into worksheet cells. Sparklines are a powerful way to show a quick snapshot of data trends.
To insert a Sparkline:
For more details, read our Microsoft Excel tip article, Show Data Trends with Tiny Sparkline Charts in Microsoft Excel 2010.
A new feature in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 allows you to broadcast slide shows to remote viewers over the web. All you need is a Windows Live ID. Microsoft provides a free Broadcast service, and creates the URL for you to share with your viewers. Just click File, Save & Send, Broadcast Slide Show, Broadcast Slide Show.
For more details, read our Microsoft PowerPoint tip, Broadcast Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Shows to Remote Viewers for Free using Windows Live ID.
FMS is pleased to announce the release of Total Visual CodeTools 2010, the most popular commercial Visual Basic for Application (VBA) and Visual Basic 6 (VB6) coding product for the Microsoft Office/Access community.
Total Visual CodeTools is an add-in that is integrated with the module editor of all VBA platforms such as Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, Outlook, Word, etc. It offers a wide range of utilities to help developers become more productive when creating new code, taking over existing projects, and delivering more robust solutions.
“Total Visual CodeTools is by far my favorite third-party product,” says Alison Balter, author of Mastering Access Desktop Development, instructor and developer. “Total Visual CodeTools helps you get your job done more quickly and allows you to focus on the fun and exciting aspects of application development. My favorite feature is the Code Cleanup. If you’ve ever inherited a code-intensive database, you’ll appreciate this feature.”
Total Visual CodeTools 2010 includes many enhancements over its predecessor for Office 2007. In addition to supporting VBA in Office 2010, there are new options and better performance for Code Cleanup and Delivery, enhancements to many Code Builders including the Message Box Builder, Recordset Builder, Select Case Builder, and SQL Text Builder. New features simplify the replacement of existing error handling code, and the user interface is enhanced to support Windows 7. There’s also improved support for international languages and operating systems.
“We are very pleased to ship Total Visual CodeTools 2010,” said Luke Chung, President of FMS. “This version represents our seventh major release of this product and our continued support of the VBA and VB6 developer communities.”
Edwin Blancovitch of Advanced Developers in Puerto Rico adds, “I really recommend it. This tool definitely increased my productivity, allows for code optimization and quality, and best of all reduced my costs.”
“I really love Total Visual CodeTools,” said Peter Weinwurm of Axium Canada. “I am completely blown away by how much the products in the Total Access Developer Suite can do, and how much time they will save me.”
Total Visual CodeTools supports all Visual Basic 6.0 and VBA development environments including all versions of Microsoft Office from Office 2000 through 2010. Additional information is available on these web pages:
Total Visual CodeTools is available via ESD and also comes with a professionally printed 164 page user manual and CD.
Total Visual CodeTools is licensed on a per developer basis. A single license is $299. Existing customers can upgrade for $199. It is also included as a standalone product and is part of the Total Access Developer Suite, Total Access Ultimate Suite, and Total Visual Developer Suite.
Total Visual CodeTools can be purchased directly from FMS, corporate resellers, and international distributors. All FMS products include a 30-day money back guarantee.
Microsoft released service pack 1 (SP1) of Office 2010 late June 2011. Information on the update and download instructions are in their Knowledgebase article 2460049. The KB article was last updated yesterday.
Unfortunately, we and some of our customers have encountered problems after installing the update. While we haven’t had exhaustive testing with SP1 and tentatively believe everything is okay with the 32 bit version, there are definitely compatibility problems with the 64 bit version of Access 2010. In particular, ACCDE files created in the original release of Access 2010 64 bit no longer run under SP1. This error message appears:
The database cannot be opened because the VBA project contained in it cannot be read. The database can be opened only if the VBA project is first deleted. Deleting the VBA project removes all code from modules, forms and reports. You should back up your database before attempting to open the database and delete the VBA project.
Obviously, with an ACCDE file, unlike an ACCDB file, you can’t modify the VBA project. It requires rebuilding the ACCDE from SP1.
So far, we have not experienced problems with our 32-bit ACCDE files between the original and SP1 Access 2010 versions. Some of these issues have been noted in these articles:
This is a Microsoft KB article discussing the problem which impacts ACCDE, MDE, and ADE files created with Access 2010, 64-bit. For us, when we create MDE and ADE files for use across multiple versions of Access, we’ve used Access 2003 so that still works fine. The only time we use Access 2010 64-bit version is when we’re creating an ACCDE specifically for Access 2010 64-bit users.
This issue impacts two of our products’ Access 2010 64 bit versions:
We have created new builds of these products and are undergoing internal testing and QA to verify they work with SP1. When ready, we’ll release free updates of these products to existing customers. If you need it earlier, please contact our support team. Note that this does not impact the Access 2010 32 bit version.
Regardless of whether you are using our products or not, please be aware of the compatibility issues if you’re using the 64-bit version of Access and deploying ACCDE files. You will need to make sure your Access version is in sync with your users’ version. Unfortunately, this bug occurs before any of your code can run to provide instructions to your users or offer a graceful exit.
Not sure what version you have installed? Run Access, select the File menu, and click on Help. The version informing is shown on the right side and will show (SP1).
Microsoft SQL Server