|
vb123.com |
|
|
Home Contact Us Order our Software RSS &
Newsletter
Get Good Help
The
Workbench
Find out who has your database open, start the
correct version of Access, easy compacting and backups, change startup
options, mde compile, shutdown database
Read and
Download Garry's Blog
About The Editor
Garry Robinson
writes for a number of popular computer magazines, is now a book author
and has worked on 100+ Access databases. He is based in Sydney,
Australia or try our new site built with
SharePoint Designer |
Is Your Database Corrupt ?
See all newsletters
Access Unlimited is an email newsletter that provides free tips, help and information for skilled Microsoft Access users and related software disciplines.
Produced by Garry Robinson (known below as "Ed") from Sydney, Australia.
In this edition,
USER INTERFACE ISSUES - THE FIRST RECORD TURN ACCESS ROWS INTO
COLUMNS
COMPACTING - REPAIRING DATABASES
LAST CHANCE OUTLOOK SECURITY PATCH - OUTLOOK 2002/XP
MULTI-COLUMN REPORTS
GOOD READING LINKS
WRAPPING THIS EDITION UP - OFFSITE BACKUP
---- ACCESS USER INTERFACE ISSUE - THE FIRST RECORD
If every there was an issue in Access that universally confuses new users then it has got to be record 1 of 1000. What does the new user do ? Find the nearest combo box, click to start searching and hey presto, the first record is modified. The following code shows you how to undo this action. Place this code in the Before Update event of your Access form
Dim chgRecord As Integer
If Me.CurrentRecord = 1 Then
chgRecord = MsgBox("You have made a change to the first record in the disability table - was this intentional ?", vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2, "You have made a change to the first record")
If chgRecord = vbNo Then Cancel = True SendKeys "{ESC}" Exit Sub End If
End If
----- TURN ACCESS ROWS INTO COLUMNS
Ed entered an article into a competition for the popular Woodys Access Watch ezine. This article explains how you can use IIF functions and other little tricks in your queries to turn rows into columns. If you think it is not important, personally this trick has saved many a line of recordset handling code. Click Here For More
----- COMPACTING - REPAIRING DATABASES - LAST CHANCE
At some stage in your life, you are going to run into an Access database compacting problem which you will not be able to fix by ordinary means. I ran into one the other day that would not allow the database to be compacted as it had a read locking error. To fix it, I converted the Access 97 database to Access XP and then back converted it to Access 97 again. Searching through my Smart Access newsletter archives, I came across a reference to the following compact and repair utility.
This also fixed this bug. Remember to check the Jet 3 option box if you are converting Access 97 databases when using this software.
----- OUTLOOK SECURITY PATCH - OUTLOOK 2002/XP
For those who haven't taken the plunge, Outlook 2002 will block many file attachments which may carry viruses including MDB MDE MDA ADP. This means that you cannot read the attachment AT ALL. You cannot imagine what a drag that is. Some clients hardly know enough to manage the Windows file manager so asking them to then go and zip the file first may end up with you loosing the job.
So here was my first solution (that I still use). Burrow down into the Outlook Account Properties and set the flag that says leave a copy of the emails on the server. This way if I get a file that I cannot read, I can hop onto the web and look at the email though HTML email (only some ISP's will provide this very useful feature). I can then download the trapped email attachment from there.
More reading on the Outlook security patch can be found at the following address
Even better is this page with solutions to the Outlook attachments problems Click Here
I recommend the attachment security options Add-In for Outlook XP.
These issues aside, I really like Outlook 2002 in standalone client mode.
--- SEARCH ACCESS 97 HELP FOR "report multi column"
This will explain how to generate a multiple column report. This is interesting because you can easily create labels and tabular reports or you can solve those annoying report messages when it says the report is not wide enough and it clearly is.
Or here are the notes from the help file
On the File menu, click Page Setup.
In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Columns tab. Under Grid Settings, in the Number Of Columns box, type the number of columns you want on each page… In the Row Spacing box, type the amount of vertical space you want between each record in the detail section… In the Column Spacing box, type the amount of space you want between the columns .... Under Column Size, type the width you want for a column in the Width box; for example, 3 inches. You can set the height of the detail section by typing a number in the Height box or by adjusting the height of the section in Design view… Under Column Layout, click the Down, Then Across option or the Across, Then Down option… Click the Page tab… Under Orientation, click Portrait or Landscape. Click OK…..
----- WORD XP ISSUES
Everytime I closed down a Word file of any sort, the file became corrupted. This could be due to an earlier installation of Adobe Acrobat but I took the simple route of trashing the 2002 version and went back to Word 97. And it was all going so well till then…
----- AUSSIE PROGRAMMERS
Always keen to hear from Sydney programmers with more than 3 years Access experience. This applies to both people looking for work or programmers who have a little too much on their plate.
----- GOOD READING
More on the WAW ezine http://www.woodyswatch.com/access/archives.asp
Which format is best 2000 or 2002 in Access XP? Well why not find out. Click here for more
----- WRAPPING THIS EDITION UP - OFFSITE BACKUP
The World Trade Center disaster brought home one computer issue. Offsite backup and recovery. Enough said.
Ed. Garry Robinson
-- OUR SOFTWARE AND RESOURCES -----------------------
Explore your data visually using our popular Access data mining shareware ---> http://www.vb123.com/graf/
View our web site as a searchable eBook and have access to all the downloads discussed in the articles and information pages at the popular vb123.com web site. ---> http://www.gr-fx.com/toolshed/
So thanks for reading our popular newsletter. Feel free to make comments, copy the email to a friend or maybe even contribute to the next edition.
Click on this button
to read the previous edition of Access Unlimited
Published 2001-09