Microsoft’s annual TechEd conference is being held in Los Angeles next week. Microsoft has invited me to participate on a few panels including:
For more information, times and rooms, please visit our Upcoming Events page. Be sure to find me up if you are there.
Total Access Components 2007 is now shipping with support for Microsoft Access 2000 through 2007. Dazzle your users with amazing enhancements to your forms and reports using 30 custom controls designed exclusively for Access. Check out our product tour with examples of the features. For existing customers, here’s a list of new features. Add animation, popup and icon menus, form resizer and splitter bars, data entry enhancements, custom cursors, simplified use of Windows API calls, and much more! Download the free trial version and see for yourself!
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
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.
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.
If you’re in the Denver, CO area next week, please drop by the Denver Access User Group meeting where I’ll be speaking on a variety of topics related to Microsoft Access and FMS. The event is from 6-9PM at the Microsoft office. The event is free though we encourage you to become a member of the group if you aren’t already. Please visit their web site for more information: http://www.daaug.org/
Over the years, I have had an ongoing discussion about how Microsoft Access best fits in an organization's database strategy. Similar to how some Excel files evolve beyond the capabilities of a spreadsheet and move to Access, some Access applications grow beyond the features of Access. Recently, I was interviewed by Microsoft’s Architect Evangelist Dr. Zhiming Xue on dealing with Access Database based solutions and the challenges of migrating them to SQL Server. Watch the 22 minute video and read more about Migrating Microsoft Access Databases to SQL Server. Let me know what you think.
Integrating emails into Microsoft Access applications is an amazingly powerful way to distribute your data. The built-in SendObject command lets you do this at a very basic level. Here’s a review of the SendObject command’s features and limitations, and how Total Access Emailer can help you extend Access beyond SendObject to really email personalized messages with Microsoft Access data and reports to all your contacts.
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
One of the most powerful ways to increase productivity is automating the distribution of personalized data to your contacts. Whether they are customers, prospects, or internal people, simplifying communications is a wonderful result of all your efforts collecting and analyzing data. With our Total Access Emailer program, we are helping thousands of people leverage the power of emails and their Microsoft Access data. Easily send HTML emails with references to your data fields to personalize each message. You can even add filtered data from a table or query, or email Microsoft Access reports either as attachments or as your HTML email. Total Access Emailer makes it easy to do on a one time basis or continuously. It runs as an Access add-in with a Wizard interface, and also has a programmatic interface with runtime library to launch emails from VBA code.
Recently, we’ve helped several organizations create Access applications where email was a critical part of the solution. For Harvard College, we developed a system to manage the assignment of interviewers and candidates. An Access database on SQL Server is used by an administrator to match the two parties, then an email sent out to the interviewer. The Interviewer then visits an ASP.NET web site to record whether they accepted or declined the assignment, and upload their results. Reminders are automatically sent if no response is received by a certain time. It’s running hot and heavy now as interviewing season comes to a close for this year’s applicants.
Similarly, we created a solution for a national firm in the customer loyalty business to improve their partners’ communications with the customers they’ve signed up. The main application is a web-based ASP.NET and SQL Server solution, but we decided to build the communications part in Access. This separated it from the transactional load on the web site and simplified its development. The marketing people could design their emails in HTML and use Total Access Emailer to replace the fields in the message with the data downloaded from SQL Server. After tweaking their message, previewing sample emails, and getting it perfect, they could launch the blast on their own. The result was a personalized email to each participant with a custom letterhead with graphics for each affinity partner as if the message came directly from them. We’ve created monthly statements, a campaign for Toys for Tots, and other notifications to drive build a closer relationship between the partners and their customers.
So if you want to send emails from database, learn more about Total Access Emailer. A free 30 day trial version to send emails from Access is available. If you’d like us to help you create a custom solution in Access or .NET with email, please contact our Professional Solutions Group.