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,

RE-USING THE FORMAT PAINTER
RESENDING MESSAGES IN OUTLOOK
SQL IN ADO IN ACCESS
ACCESS SECURITY WIZARD
GOOGLE GROUPS ARE GREAT FOR SEARCHING
ADD A LINE NUMBER TO YOUR ERROR MESSAGES
SPEECH RECOGNITION IN OFFICE XP
COMPUTER SECURITY
DOWNLOADS FOR VISUAL BASIC 6 SERVICE PACK 5
INSERT STATEMENTS IN SQL IN ACCESS
CHEAP PDF ALTERNATIVE
GOOD READING
THE WORKBENCH HAS ARRIVED - EDITORIAL


---- RE-USING THE FORMAT PAINTER MORE THAN ONCE

One of the shared toolbar buttons across the Office Suite is the format painter 
(the yellow paintbrush).  This copies the format (font, size, color) of a word or 
button or cell from one object to another similar object.  If you first click the 
object whose format you want to copy first and then double click the format painter, 
you can keep pointing at new objects to transfer the format.  To stop, hit the 
Escape key.

--- RESENDING MESSAGES IN OUTLOOK

If you have to send an email message again to the same person, first find the message 
in your Sent folder and Open it.  Now click on the Actions menu and choose Resend 
message.  Sure beats forwarding and then cutting and pasting the email address 
(like Ed always did).

--- SQL IN ADO IN ACCESS

Microsoft has provided Access with a very thorough SQL (Structured Query
Language) tool set.  If you do not regularly use it or never have, 
try this simple test.  There is a little in this article for ADO freaks as well.

http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/02_accvb/adosql.htm

by Scott McManus


--- GOOGLE GROUPS ARE GREAT FOR SEARCHING

If you have a specific bug in your Access or Office program that you cannot
fix, try searching for the error using www.google.com.   Once you have
exhausted the html pages, click on the groups Tab that you will see at 
the top of the Google search page.  The following were 2 Google group pages 
that I found that solved 2 tricky problems on our client's computers.


The following tells you how to fix a computer that will not read text files 
properly into Microsoft Access 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F29D42C41

This monster page has heaps of facts on and for fixing Access database corruptions 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P2BD21C41


--- ADD A LINE NUMBER TO YOUR ERROR MESSAGES

The following visual basic code shows how you can add and display line
numbers using the ERL function in visual basic.   First put a number in the
first column of your code (like 50, 100, 200 below).  Now use Erl() to 
display the last line number encountered before the error occurred.  This is 
good for really tricky debug issues.

Sub TestErL()

'This function shows how a line number can be printed out with an error

50   On Error GoTo Err_Wally
100  DoCmd.OpenForm "MyForm"

200  Exit Sub

Err_Wally:
  MsgBox "Error line number as follows ..." & Erl()

End Sub

--- SPEECH RECOGNITION IN OFFICE XP

To find out all the commands that you can use whilst dictating, type "Comma"
into the search of the language bar help.    Or else read the following

http://www.dummies.com/OfficeXP/0-7645-0839-3_0006.html

Personally after a number of attempts and partial success, I find the best way |
to use the speech recognition is by actually writing the material down on paper 
first.  Naturally this makes the keyboard faster on most occasions but when 
you are editing a document on the train or the lounge, your keyboard is far 
away and it is this scribble that is quite suited to
computer dictation.    Ed


--- COMPUTER SECURITY

The following page gives a good run down on security issues with Windows XP and 2000.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/columns/security/5min/5min-105.asp

A good site to visit for firewall software for the home is www.zonelabs.com

Secure Your Enterprise with Office XP 
http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/enterprisezone/itcolumn10.asp


--- INSERT STATEMENTS IN SQL IN ACCESS

The access query design tool is very powerful but it has trouble doing Insert 
statements that use Values for single-record append queries.  These you have to 
handle in the SQL  query view.  Do not switch back to design view or your query 
will be scrambled.  Best to copy the SQL direct to code and use docmd.runsql 
instead.  Example

INSERT INTO target [(field1[, field2[, ...]])]
VALUES (value1[, value2[, ...])

--- COMING UP

If you have anything important programmed for Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, 
Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger then you had better watch out as 
Microsoft is soon to release a service security pack that will lock these babies 
up and throw away the key.  There will be a new programming SDK coming out that you 
will need to use instead.  No URL for this information, Ed just saw it in 
a computer magazine.

--- DOWNLOADS FOR VISUAL BASIC 6 SERVICE PACK 5

A rather hard page to find at Microsoft was service packs for visual basic 6
(classic) as the web site is predominantly .NET    Be warned as the full vb
download is 56 megabytes.  Note that this took 8 minutes on cable modem from 
Australia as against 4 hours for 56k modem.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/updates/sp/vs6/sp5/default.asp

--- PDF ALTERNATIVE

A reader writes "I was just scrounging around your site and noticed the page 
on using Adobe Distiller to generate PDFs
http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/01_access/save_as_pdf.htm

As I am cheap, I use   Win2PDF to do the same thing. www.win2pdf.com
I think it was about $20.00.  Might be worth your readers taking a look at.


--- GOOD READING

Quite a popular place to post questions on Access 
http://www.utteraccess.com/

This site will tell you what programs use what file extensions 
http://filext.com/

Interesting thread on a bug that turned up on a computer running a reinstalled 
version of Access 97.  Bug related to function not being available.  
I.e. left$, format   and other important ones.  Solution... Look
at references.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E23012F31

Dummy's Books have some free reads for you buddy you programmers 
http://www.dummies.com/officexp/

Tools To Improve The Performance Of Your Web Site and even test it as if you 
were running a 56 Modem 
http://www.optiview.com/

Some Good Outlook VB including getting an email address from a 
message (which is real difficult) 
http://www.slovaktech.com/code_samples.htm



Some sample visual basic 
http://www.phillipeaton.com/professional/projects/codesamples.htm

Thinking of converting from Access to Oracle.  Maybe this is the tool ? 
http://otn.oracle.com/tech/migration/focusareas/access.html


Programming of HTML Help.  Try this site 
http://www.mvps.org/htmlhelpcenter/

Software for creating software installations 
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Create Email Signatures in Word 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O35A21AA1

Hyperlinking In Visual Basic 6 
http://www.aivosto.com/visdev/vdmbvis58.html


Connection Strings For ADO 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q1EB62AA1


WRAPPING THIS EDITION UP

During the last month we have completed our shift of web sites from 
Australia to the USA.  As we are now receiving 600+ visitors a day, mostly from 
north of the equator, this should improve the performance of the web site.

Also during the month, a new piece of software was released at vb123.com. It is 
called The WorkBench and its first purpose is to assist you to workout
who is using your Access databases.   We encourage you to join the 20+
persons downloading the software every day.   We are also looking for
feedback and good ideas to improve the software.   Genuine responses will
receive free registration or copies of our other software.

http://www.vb123.com/workbench/


Garry Robinson  - Editor

-- OUR SOFTWARE AND RESOURCES -----------------------

Find out more about your databases and users
---> http://www.vb123.com/workbench/

Explore your data visually using our popular Access
data mining shareware
---> http://www.gr-fx.com/graf-fx.htm

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.vb123.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.


Garry Robinson - Software Consultant



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