Welcome To The Access Unlimited Newsletter - Edition 67   
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Access Unlimited is an email newsletter that provides Tips, Tricks and Techniques for skilled Microsoft Access users and people working in related software disciplines.

Produced by Garry Robinson (known below as "Ed") from Sydney, Australia.

Access 2007 - An Overview Of Features

The beta 1 version of Office 12 is rolling along and it looks like it will be called Office 2007. Recently, Microsoft gave the Beta 1 testers permission to discuss the features of what is in the next version of Office. I am sure most of the readers will read many great things from many different people in Microsoft over the coming year or two and some will be true, some will simply be regurgitated media releases and some will be proper analysis of the new product. Anyway for what it is worth, here is a summary of what you are going to find in the next version of Access.

1) The menus are quite different
2) The database container now works like a interactive task bar
3) Access will support MDB files with the new interface and most of the old things that you are used to from Access 2000 onwards. The MDB format will not be developed much further.
4) Access will now have a new file format called ACEDB. If you adopt this format or users convert your database to this format, the following things will not be supported

. Access user level security
. Replication
. Data Access Pages (ADP is still supported)

5) There will be new simpler forms and reports and the macro environment will be improved.

As for things that will appear in the next version, this following statement from Microsoft describes what the focus of the next version is.

" Our goals for Access 12 are to make new users more successful, to make
existing users more productive, and to enable a whole new type of database
application built around Windows SharePoint Services."

To achieve these goals, the new Database templates are far more prominent in the next version of Access. MS states that there has been a million downloads of the Access 2003 new databases templates and they want to build on this success. It also describes why the menu's were redesigned to make them work the same as the next version of Word and Excel.

Finally Sharepoint support means that a lot of changes to Access itself seemed geared around making linked tables work really well into SharePoint services. It seems as if they hope Access will be a prominent tool in supporting SharePoint development. Only time will tell.

As for my feelings on whether I like the next version of Access, I believe that the most important conclusion about the next version of Access is that it is still being treated seriously by Microsoft. Also there is a very good chance that there will be a lot more people using Access in the future because there is no software company in the world that spends more money on user research than Microsoft. Another interesting development sideline is that for ACEDB format databases, the Access team has now taken back development of the jet engine from the Windows development team. This should bode well for future development of Access databases. I cannot say much more as there is still a gag on us discussing our findings of Access 2007 outside the beta website.

If you wish to comment on this topic, post your response (good or bad) using Google's anonymous blogger system at the following address.
http://vb123.blogspot.com/

Read what I said about workgroup security in Access 2007 here.

As I mentioned in the previous newsletters, I have decided to adopt XML to help distribute news content at vb123.com. In this newsletter I have converted our RSS feeds for the last month or two into HTML to include in this email. These links and descriptions are listed below.

6/03/2006 MS's Access 12 Blog
"Starting a new blank database in Access has always been very different than starting in Word or Excel. In those apps, getting started goes something like "boot the app, start typing". In Access, you've needed to know that you had to create a table to put data in, then you needed to understand data types, then you could move to the right view, then start typing. This clearly represented the underlying structure of the database and afforded lots of control, but it was hard to understand. With Access 12, "boot the app, start typing" works." That's the Microsoft pitch, have a look and see if you agree.

27/02/2006 Plenty of different switchboards here
Try out the 12 different Switchboards for Access at Tony D'Ambra's popular website

21/02/2006 Blog away on the demise of workgroup security and the new features in Access 2007
The phase out of Access Workgroup security may be a good thing to you or a bad thing. or you may wish to comment on the new features and approach of Access 2007.

Blog away on either of these topics using the web site that we have setup with Google's anonymous blogger system.
 

Access Unlimited Business Links

If you don't have a RSS/XML news reader
Click here to view the latest vb123 links and news feeds as HTML 

Our VB123 Database Repair Service

If you have trouble with your database and cannot compact and repair it, why not try our database repair service.

http://www.vb123.com/fixaccess
 

How To Advertise on VB123.com

One way to ensure that your product is advertised to an audience that loves Access content is to advertise with vb123.com. The easy way to do this and remain anonymous is to use Google as follows.

"Go to the bottom Left Hand Side of any page of vb123.com and you will see a list of advertisements small link (advertise on this site). This will allow you to target our site.

GOOD READING Continued

23/02/2006 Sign-up for Access 2007 Beta
Click on the Register Now button on this page for beta 2 of Office/Access 2007.Note that the download is 500 megabytes and it is best to install this on a computer that doesn't have a working version of Office.

6/01/2006 Rick Dobson Seminar for SQL Server Express, Visual Basic Express, and Visual Web Developer Express.
The seminar features 21 hours of live, interactive training spread over 3 days or 6 evenings at any of three presentations during March and early April. Registrants view slides and demonstrations in their browser and use a toll-free number for two-way audio communication. The software for this seminar is FREE, and you receive a FREE copy of a book on creating database solutions with SQL Server 2005 Express, Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express. Registrants have a chance to win one of 3 copies of SQL Server 2005/Visual Studio 2005, which is worth many times more than the $275 registration fee.

20/02/2006 Do you use Select * from table
This page offers some arguments why you shouldn't use select * and they aren't all about performance.

18/02/2006 The Access Developer Portal at Microsoft
This Microsoft subweb page includes summaries and links to technical articles and code samples that describe how you can use Access to create sophisticated solutions, extend data to the Web, and build database solutions faster.

17/02/2006 Office 2007 - That's the name.. Now find out the pricings and packages.
Microsoft on Wednesday offered further details on the next version of Office, announcing plans for a new home version as well as new server-based products and a new high-end enterprise edition of the desktop suite.

The software maker also offered pricing details for some, though not all, of the new products. In general, Microsoft said both businesses and consumers should expect to pay about the same for the new Office as they have paid for past versions.

This gives you an idea what has happened in the next version.


3/02/2006 Update to the PDF Writers Page at vb123.com
This page outlines users submissions on 7 different PDF writer programs that are suited to MS Access. Of course Access 2006 will come with a PDF writer when it ships but when will your average site have time to undertake the conversion.

13/11/2005 New Version of Workbench For Microsoft Access Released
Fixed an annoying little quirk in the Favorites list box so that database ID field didn't turn into a text box suggesting renaming was possible. Most Recently Used databases form has been upgraded to allow for Adding the database to the favorites list when you open the database. Also the MRU form appears automatically when you first install the Workbench to make it easier to get started plus it searches for versions of Access on your computer so that the best MRU list is shown. The Add favorite button, generates an automatic 8 character ID for the database. Better support for resellers of the Workbench.

1/02/2006 A Video about Database Development With SQL Server Express, VB 2005
Do you want to start quickly developing WinForms-based database applications? The VS 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express combination offers many new features and tools to help you quickly build "bread-and-butter" database applications. Jay Schmelzer shows you how to install and administer the database with the Express Manager, design and implement DataSet-bound forms, and generate reports with SQL Server Reporting Services.

30/01/2005 Repair Damaged Access Databases
vb123.com now offers an online repair system for Access databases. Included in the latest version is the option to only repair tables rather than fix the whole database. This reduces the cost of exercise. The system is setup so that your data is encrypted and in most cases, you should be able to recover a corrupt database in less than 30 minutes elapsed time.

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