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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
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Next Tip    Links To More Toolshed Exclusive Downloads

The following topics describe objects and source code that are available when you purchase The Toolshed resource kit.  If you do not own The Toolshed, links to the files will not work. 

Logging Windows User Names In Access

One of the most useful utilities that I have ever written is an Access form that logs users .  This form is opened in hidden mode using the Autoexec macro.  When it opens, the software works out both the Windows Username and the Access Workgroup username and saves it to a table.  When the database is closed down by the user, the login details are updated with the logoff time.  The table with the user details is then very useful for working out users statistics. What I find most useful about this utility is simply to open the table (called Userlogs) and show all entries for today that are still logged in.  Then I know who to contact if I am about to install new software or compact the database or other administration tasks. I discuss this in detail in chapter 6 of my book

SystemUsername

AccessUsername

logInTime

logOffTime

PetersC

Admin

21/11/2001 12:32:00 PM

21/11/2001 12:38:00 PM

SmithJ

Admin

21/11/2001 12:15:00 PM

ThatcherD

Admin

21/11/2001 9:27:00 AM

21/11/2001 11:04:00 AM

AndrewsD

Admin

20/11/2001 4:07:00 PM

20/11/2001 4:57:00 PM

PetersC

Admin

20/11/2001 12:05:00 PM

20/11/2001 12:08:00 PM

Click here for the user Logging download sample database  (Access 97 or 2000+)  Downloads only for Toolshed owners

NOTE: This sample database also includes code for shutting down a database and sending user messages. The Access Workbench uses a different system now for this process.

Shutdowns and User Messages

If you want to deploy the system that we used to use to shutdown databases, we have a sample database in the Toolshed. The sample database that comes with The Toolshed shows you how to use a table and a form with a timer event. We now deploy a different technique using the Workbench.

Click here for the database shutdown and messages sample database  (Access 97 or 2000+)  Downloads only for Toolshed owners

Checking The Regional Date Setting Whilst Starting Microsoft Access

This function tests the date format in the computer that is being used to see if the date format is actually the local regional format. In countries outside America, this can be a real pain if the computer is unknowingly running with a USA format because 1-June-2001 could be entered by the user as 1/6/01 and stored in the computer as 6-January-2001. This change to the date occurs after entry and is hard for the user to pickup. The following code illustrates the function in action.

' Test that the Australian short date setting is OK
If Not regionalDateCheck_FX("Australia") Then
  MsgBox "Problems with regional settings"
Else
  MsgBox "Simple Test passed OK"
End If

' Test that the Australian 4 digit years setting is OK
If Not regionalDateCheck_FX("Australia YYYY") Then
  MsgBox "Problems with regional YYYY settings"
Else
  MsgBox "Test passed OK"
End If

The alternative to this type of test is to setup the input mask on the date field as dd/mm/yyyy This works very well from a compliance point of view. The big problem here is that data entry and modification of dates is quite difficult when compared to entering dates into free format date fields. To find out more on how to retrieve this source code, click on the following link.

download.gif (151 bytes)  Click here for the Date Checker download database  (Access 97/2000/XP)

Sunbaked Calendar and GR-FX 24 Time Clock

2 Access Forms that will act as controls for entering dates and time into your Access databases.  Both forms are unsecured for easier upgrades between versions of Access.

download.gif (151 bytes)  Download 97 Version Here  

HOW DO I SHOW PERCENTAGES IN GRAPHS

If you are interested in showing percentages in a versatile graph form, the following form and related queries comes as part of the Toolshed downloads.

download.gif (151 bytes)  Click here for the sample percentages database  (Access 2000/XP/2003)

 

 

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Thanks for your interest,

Garry Robinson.

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