Access Announcements

[NeoPa]

Access Announcements

From time to time we (Access MVPs) get information from the Access Team at Microsoft about what is happening with Microsoft Access. Much of this we are not allowed to share publicly. This sticky thread is for that which we are allowed to share, and for other information we come across related to Access which may not have been prompted by Microsoft themselves.

I'll try to keep this up to date with all important announcements.

To avoid the likelihood of clutter, and to keep this to the point as much as possible, I'm locking this thread for all but moderators. If you have something you feel should be said then please PM me and I'll decide how to handle it.

Anyone interested in keeping up-to-date with all blogs from the Access Team should monitor the Access Blog Index.

[NeoPa]

Still Life in MS Access

Contrary to what many of us thought in recent years, there is still life in the old dog yet!

More than two decades old and counting. This may be old technology but MS have realised there is still a great deal of value yet to be had out of the product.

I've recently returned from Redmond WA where a whole bunch of Access MVPs learned that MS are planning to invest more resources into bringing Access forward for the millions of us still using it for all sorts of purposes. Notice that this applies to both the desktop and the AWAs (Access Web Apps).

If this excites you as much as it does me then why not go over to User Voice for Access Desktop, or even User voice for AWAs and vote for what you would most like to see in the product(s).

[grovelli]

One way to rekindle the fire would probably be to start posting on https://blogs.office.com/access/ again with Access-specific threads

[NeoPa]

Problem with November Update (KB2837592)

Access 2010 may encounter a crash after installing the November update KB2837592

[NeoPa]

Access Team Welcome Feedback and Suggestions via Access UserVoice

Access Blog (Connecting with Customers on Access UserVoice)

[NeoPa]

GRovelli:
One way to rekindle the fire would probably be to start posting on https://blogs.office.com/access/ again with Access-specific threads

I suspect they must have heard you ;-) I've updated the OP with this link as we anticipate this medium to be more heavily used in future.

NB. When reviewing the items in the list bear in mind they are in descending order of date, as read from left to right then down the page, but with different sized items this can be harder to cruise. Remember then, work from the top-left corner of each item to see them in the correct order.

[NeoPa]

Problems with KB3085515.

There has been a bit of a kerfuffle recently after a number of problems were noticed after this recent release went out.

Here is some stuff that you should all know :

1. The update was to address a VBA-crashing issue in Excel.
2. The update unfortunately has some negative impact on Access 2010 users.
3. There is no reason to believe that any other versions will be affected.
4. Product teams are actively working on the issue.
5. If you’ve installed the update, Microsoft recommends uninstalling it at this time.

For more details and the whole story so far see the Access Support Team Blog post.

[NeoPa]

On a Personal Note

I have a video up on Microsoft's Channel9 that I'm hoping you may find interesting MVP Free Tools for MS Access. I'm alongside fellow MS Access MVP Crystal Long and we're offering free tools for MS Access.

Any views, and particularly awarding of 5 stars as a rating, are appreciated :-)

[NeoPa]

Access UserVoice Comes Up Trumps

I've posted before about Access UserVoice.

Recently we found out that, as a direct response to one of the most popular suggestions, dBase files are on their way back in - Back by popular demand—dBASE file support in Access.

[NeoPa]

New Access Tutorials

The Access Team, or A-Team as we like to call them now since they've started to make things happen again with our beloved Access, with the help of others at MSFT, have produced a series of new tutorials (What is Access?) aimed at getting people to start using Access quickly and easily.

You may find this link very useful in your trips around the forum.

[NeoPa]

BigInt Support

New in Access 2016—Large Number (BigInt) Support

[NeoPa]

Date/Time Extended Fields (& Recent Issues in Access)

Below is a copy of an email we received from Ebo Quansah who is the head of the Access Team in Redmond.

"Very soon, we will ship a new data type, known as Date & Time Extended, which enhances syntax compatibility with SQL while increasing accuracy & level of detail in date & time records.
While the feature is not yet enabled in Current Channel builds, most of the code for the feature is in the product in an inactive state. Nonetheless, we are aware of a problem that currently exists with this new code. As of today, if you are on version 2005, build 12827.20010 or greater, and you manipulate Decimal fields (Access DataType=Number/FieldSize=Decimal, or SQL DataType=Decimal) using DAO (Data Access Objects), you might have identified your app crashing. If you hover a variable with the type in VBA code, you may see that the field is not being displayed properly; either reading as '?????' or giving a Type Mismatch error, or Access may crash.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience this causes in your Access app. The Access team is working on resolving this issue as soon as possible, and we will report back to you once this error has been fixed. In the interim, we’d recommend for you to roll back to a previous version (How to revert to an earlier version of Office), or switch to a slower channel (e.g Monthly Enterprise Channel, or SemiAnnual Channel), until the issue is fixed in Current Channel. The issue only impacts Decimal types so if avoiding DAO code that manipulates Decimal types is possible, we’d advise this as a short term solution.
Thank you,
-Ebo Quansah"

[NeoPa]

As a follow-up to my most recent post, here (Access VBA/DAO code may crash or report incorrect data for Decimal columns) is a page that gives further advice.

Please feel free to share this and the previous link as much as possible.

[NeoPa]

Here's what a fellow Access MVP (Armen Stein) said recently about this :

I spent a while online trying to figure out how to switch channels from Current to Monthly Enterprise. I kept going down rabbit holes trying to figure out how to code my own configuration XML to do it and then apply it using the Office Deployment Tool (ODT). It’s way too hard.

Then I found a non-Microsoft site that made it easy. Here are my tested steps. I’m using Office 365 CTR, and they worked perfectly.

1. Close all Office programs.
2. Type Windows-Cmd to open Cmd window using Run as Administrator.
   

   

3. Type: cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
4. Type: OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=MonthlyEnterprise
5. Type: OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user
6. You’ll see a window about updating Office. It may take a few minutes. Wait until it completes.
7. In any Office program (Word, Access) click File..Account. Channel should now be Monthly Enterprise Channel.
   

   

Hope this helps,
Armen.

[isladogs]

The UK AUG seminar originally scheduled for 4 Nov 2021 was unfortunately cancelled due to issues related to COVID.

This has now been rescheduled for 8 Feb 2022 - hopefully as a live event....
The agenda is as follows:

0915 START
• Steve Girling, Case Study of a Live Project Using an Access/SQL Database
• Donna Landy, The Lazy Coder – codeless prototyping
• Colin Riddington, Automatic Form Resizing

1245-1345 LUNCH
• Alan Cossey, Confirming the Printing of Reports when Access doesn’t Play Ball!
• Colin Riddington, Controlling the Application Interface
• Peter Bryant, Managing SQL Backup For You On Demand

1600 CLOSE

Full details of the event are available at: https://www.ukaug.co.uk/wp-content/u...bruary2022.pdf
To book a place, email [e-mail]

The seminar is FREE to UK AUG members. For non-members: the membership rate is £70+vat per year so you can join and attend both this conference (and the spring conference too)

[isladogs]

Access Europe (AE) is a new online chapter of AccessUserGroups.org.

Further details are available from https://accessusergroups.org/europe/

All meetings will be on the first Wednesday of each month from 18:00-19:00 (UK time – currently UTC/GMT) and will be co-chaired by Alessandro Grimaldi & Colin Riddington.

Whilst Access Europe is intended to be at a time suitable for residents of European countries, the meetings are both free and open to all

The first meeting on Wed 2 March will be used to introduce ourselves and explain the purpose of the group, explain how to use the various tools on the AccessUserGroup website and provide more details about the group as a whole.

We hope you will join us for our first meeting and help ensure the new Access Europe chapter is a success
https://accessusergroups.org/europe/...pe-2022-03-02/

It is intended that Access Europe will largely focus on innovative and lesser-known features in Access.

During the first meeting, there will be short presentations by both Alessandro and Colin as a ‘taster’ of what to expect from future meetings.

The session will also provide an opportunity for those attending to suggest possible topics of interest for subsequent meetings.

We already have an exciting range of speakers and topics booked for the coming months, starting on Wed 6 April with Chris Arnold who will be demonstrating his new and very powerful Access Studio application.

Please sign up to get notified about details of future events