Jun 10

FMS Offers Custom Microsoft ASP.NET Website Development Services

Consulting Services for Microsoft ASP.NET Over the past year our Professional Solutions Group has delivered some notable ASP.NET web projects, including The HotMommas Project, a case study competition website for women entrepreneurs that has received a lot of press, and a competency and courseware management system for the DoD’s Defense Acquisition University.

We encourage you to read more about our ASP.NET web development services. If you need a quality website, we have an experienced group of business consultants, web developers and database experts that would love to help. Please contact us for a free assessment of your organization’s requirements.

Jun 03

Video: The World Turned Upside Down: Development Strategies for Lean Times

Worried about your job or career?  Uncertain about what to do to protect your future? 

Watch this video from my panel discussion at the Microsoft TechEd Conference. Hear me share my experiences at FMS with fiver other developers, and different ways we’ve survived over our careers. Entitled The World Turned Upside Down: Development Strategies for Lean Times, the video is 51 minutes.

May 22

Video: Let’s Talk about Software Consulting as a Business

Here's the video from my panel discussion at the Microsoft TechEd Conference. Taped on May 11th at the Los Angeles Convention Center, hear me share my experiences at FMS with two fellow software consulting firm entrepreneurs. Learn from our efforts over the past two decades, the challenges we face, and how we've been successful. Entitled Let's Talk about Software Consulting as a Business, the video is 54 minutes.

May 15

Create a Continuously Emailing System with Total Access Emailer

Microsoft Access Email BlasterTotal Access EmailerMicrosoft Access Email Microsoft Access

Discover how Total Access Emailer can support a table driven system to continuously send emails from your Microsoft Access application. With an instance of Microsoft Access running Total Access Emailer’s programmatic interface, you can automatically send emails from a table. Create a custom email in your application and simply add it as new record to a table. The email is automatically sent without interrupting your application. Read the article for more information on how easy this is to implement.

May 11

Microsoft Access Queries: “Unique Values” (DISTINCT) vs. “Unique Records” (DISTINCTROW)

When creating queries in Access, you may have noticed the query properties “Unique Values” and “Unique Records”. Are you familiar with the difference between these properties?

“Unique Values” and “Unique Records” correspond with the DISTINCT and DISTINCTROW statements (respectively) in the query’s SQL. Although they sometimes provide the same results, there are significant differences in how they work:

  • DISTINCT checks for unique values only in the fields selected for output, and eliminates duplicate rows. Results are not updatable, since they do not necessarily correspond with a unique record.
  • DISTINCTROW checks for unique values in all fields in the table that you are querying, not just the fields listed for output. If the table is keyed, the results are updatable, since they correspond with a single record in the underlying data.

Learn more and view an example of the differences in our new paper on Microsoft Access Queries: Distinct versus DistinctRow.

Visit our Microsoft Access Query Help Center for more query tips.

Mar 25

Make Sure Access Subforms Reference the Master Control and Not the Field Name

Recently, we published an article describing how to Synchronize Two Related Subforms on a Microsoft Access Form. In that article, we mentioned when setting the master link field of a subform, you should always reference the control rather than the field name. We didn't mention why and received some inquiries, so this new article covers when and why that's so important. It includes a database with examples showing how a reference to the field instead of the control could cause users to not realize they're editing the wrong linked records, or adding and deleting records linked to the wrong master value. Read more in the article on why Microsoft Access Subforms Should Reference the Control Rather than Field for Master Link Fields

 

Mar 16

Latest Product Updates from FMS

As part of our commitment to quality software, FMS regularly releases product update patches to add new enhancements and resolve known issues. Most recently, we have released updates for Total Access Emailer, Total Access Analyzer 2007, and Total Visual CodeTools. Updates have been sent to all registered owners—contact us if you did not receive your update.

You can check for updates in most FMS products by using the built-in Update Wizard. From the Windows Start menu, select All Programs, FMS, Program Name, Update Wizard. Follow the wizard prompts to check for updates.

Mar 12

Top Features of Microsoft Access 2007 That Aren’t Available in Prior Versions

There are many experienced Microsoft Access developers who continue to resist the migration to Access 2007. While there are some changes that are cumbersome, there are many new features that justify the migration. With Access 2007, you can create applications with features that in many cases would be impossible to provide in prior versions. Here are my Top Features of Microsoft Access 2007 That Aren't Available in Prior Versions.

Feb 08

Online Books and Review of FMS Products

Our friend Alison Balter is a popular speaker, author, and trainer in the Microsoft Access community. She’s been a user and fan of our products for many years. In her Mastering Office Access 2003 book, she wrote a whole chapter on ThirdParty Tools That Can Help You Get Your Job Done Effectively, where she covered many of our Access related products:

  • Total Access Analyzer
  • Total Access Admin
  • Total Access Components
  • Total Access Detective
  • Total Access Emailer
  • Total Access Memo
  • Total Access Speller
  • Total Access Startup
  • Total Access Statistics
  • Total Visual Agent
  • Total Visual CodeTools
  • Total Visual SourceBook
  • You can now read that chapter and preview the book online