May 11

Streamlining Communications with Your Contacts

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Microsoft Access Email BlasterTotal Access EmailerMicrosoft Access Email

We have a long history of leveraging existing data to improve decision-making and communications.

Many of you are already familiar with how our Total Access Emailer program automates the sending of personalized emails with recipient specific data and reports. This amazing product lets you leverage the power of your data to significantly improve how you communicate with your contacts.

With our experience creating Total Access Emailer, our Professional Solutions Group has helped many organizations incorporate the product and implement advanced, custom features.

We’ve also taken this technology to the next level by creating web sites to host files rather than emailing them to your contacts. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can extend your Windows desktop files to the web, please let us know. We can make it easy for your contacts to privately log in and see their files.

Can we help you with a project? Contact us for a Risk Free Assessment.

May 11

Avoid Using DoEvents to Wait in Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6

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In our Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6 programs, we often need to pause processing for a certain period of time, or until a specific time, and then continue processing. One common way to do this is to use the DoEvents function in a loop while waiting, however, this method consumes the CPU time and slows down the PC considerably. This is a significant problem when pausing for more than a couple of seconds, when users will notice the slow down. Use the Sleep command instead.

This is available in our Total Visual SourceBook!

May 11

Adding (and Subtracting) Weekdays in Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6

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Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6 include a wide range of built-in Date functions, including DateAdd, which calculates the difference between two dates. A common need, however, is to add a number of weekdays to a date, without counting weekend dates.

Learn about this and all our royalty-free module code in Total Visual SourceBook where you can also perform business day math with a list of holidays to avoid.

May 11

Microsoft Access 2010’s New Feature to Web Enable Access Databases

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Microsoft Access 2010

One of the most compelling features of Microsoft Access 2010 is its ability to post an Access database on a SharePoint 2010 site and have it run over the web. Some people hear this and think they'll be able to take their existing Access application, all its VBA code, etc., and make it web enabled. Unfortunately, that's not the case. What you can expose to the web is forms and reports that don't use VBA code. That's obviously a severe limitation, but on the plus side, what is possible is the deployment of databases that have automation through Access macros. The macros are automatically converted to JavaScript code. That's pretty cool.

An Access database that's hosted in this way can still be used locally on a desktop that has Access 2010 installed with all the rich functionality of Access, VBA, etc. The data is then hosted in SharePoint which exposes it to the web. So while it's not making it possible to publish an entire Access application with VBA to the web, at least a portion of it may be exposed with little to no additional effort. Letting people browse data, filter, and generate simple reports is all available and possible by non-programmers. It's a big step forward for the Access community.

Apr 14

Total Zip Code Database Now Has Latitude and Longitude

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One of the nicest features to add to an address data entry screen is to automatically fill the city and state fields when a zip code is entered. In conjunction with the US Postal Service, FMS offers the Total Zip Code Database which gives you the entire list of valid zip codes and their corresponding city and state names. Both the primary and secondary city names are provided. Speed up data entry, eliminate typos, and clean up existing data with Total Zip Code Database. We also include the list of common city names the USPS doesn’t like with their corresponding corrections. The database is provided on an annual subscription basis with an initial list and 11 monthly updates.

In addition to the information provided by the USPS, the Total Zip Code Database also includes geospatial coordinates (latitude and longitude) for each zip code. We also provide a list of countries and states to simplify lookups, and module code and sample form to add this to your applications. The data is provided in a Microsoft Access MDB and ASCII files.

For more information, visit the Total Zip Code Database page, view the zip code flier, or try the free trial.

Total Zip Code Database

Apr 13

Microsoft Access 2010 Preview Version of Total Access Admin

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We are pleased to release a FREE preview version of Total Access Admin 2010 for your review. Total Access Admin lets you monitor Access databases in real time. Select any Access Jet database (MDB or ACCDB) across your network to view and log users as they enter and exit your database. It's particularly useful for documenting suspect connections that could be the source of database corruption. You can also perform a variety of tasks such as locking new users from opening your database, compacting the database after everyone has exited, etc. The existing version supports Access 2007 and earlier. This new version support Access 2010 for both 32 and 64 bit formats, along with databases from earlier version of MS Access. For more information and download instructions, visit Total Access Admin 2010 Preview.

Apr 02

Update Patch for Total Access Analyzer 2002

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Microsoft Access Database DocumentationMicrosoft Access Database DocumentationMicrosoft Access Documenter

Total Access Analyzer examines all your database objects to provide extensive documentation, cross-reference, and application and flow diagrams, with over 350 presentation-quality reports. It detects 280+ types of errors, suggestions, and performance tips, so you can learn and apply Best Practices to improve and speed up your Microsoft Access applications.

As part of our commitment to quality, we are pleased to announce that we have released a new update for Total Access Analyzer 2002, version 10.8. This update resolves all known issues since their original release.

The updates are available free of charge to registered owners who were notified via email. If you did not receive instructions, please contact us so we can update your information.

Mar 24

Starting an AutoNumber Field in MS Access with a Number You Want

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In Microsoft Access tables, the AutoNumber field type allows you to automatically assign a unique sequential number to each row in a table. AutoNumber fields are often used as the Primary Key, since they are unique and permanent.

By default, AutoNumber begins with 1. However, you may want to start with another number. Here’s an easy way to set the AutoNumber at a number higher than 1.

(NOTE: This tip was revised on March 26, 2010 to fix a typo in the SQL syntax.)

Mar 24

Office Tip: Introducing Microsoft Office/Access 2010 and SkyDrive

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Microsoft Access 2010The release candidate of Office 2010 is now available, and Office 2010 is expected to be shipping by mid-year. Hopefully you take the chance to download it, or at least review some of the many videos and articles about the new features.

For Access enthusiasts, the new version makes Access even more accessible to non-developers by exposing more functionality without requiring code or queries. For example, Reports are much richer, with added calculation tools and the ability to combine data from multiple sources. Microsoft has also created a whole new set of Templates to get users started more quickly, and what can be characterized as data triggers for Jet databases.

Most interesting is the ability to create solutions that can be exposed to the web. There are lots of restrictions and it’s not the same as putting an existing Access application on the web, but by leveraging SharePoint and cloud computing, it’s a whole new option for Access users and developers.

Part of Office 2010 is the Office Web Applications (OWA), a web version of Excel, PowerPoint, Word programs that allows you to create, edit and host Office files on the web without having Office installed locally. Microsoft is actually providing 25GB of space for you for free on their new SkyDrive site (with you Microsoft Live account).

Note: After losing a court case in the UK, Microsoft has renamed SkyDrive to OneDrive.

Mar 24

Paper: Microsoft Access Delete Query and SQL Syntax

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Delete Query in Microsoft Access Could not delete from the specified tables.JPG

In our continuing coverage of query tips and techniques, we've create a paper focused on the DELETE query in Microsoft Access. It covers the basics of DELETE query SQL Syntax. It's a very powerful feature and a fundamental part of relational databases since you can remove multiple records at one time, and can specify which records to delete by linking to data in another table.

The paper also covers these more advanced topics:

  • Query fails: "Could not delete from the specified tables"
  • Use DISTINCTROW with Delete Queries for Non-Key Field Joins

Understanding and using Delete Queries improves the performance of your applications and makes them easier to maintain versus doing the same changes manually or in code.