Access JumpStart 2.0 | Blog
A Rapid Development Framework for Microsoft Access
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Custom tags for form controls – considering usage options
Yesterday, I talked about creating a class for custom tags for form controls. In particular, I have a class I'll call FormResizer. I want FormResizer to be able to set and read top, left, width, and height properties for the original attributes of the control so that...
Custom tags for form controls – the idea
Every Access control has a tag property which stores a string. I've used this property before to store information about a control I'll need later. Kind of a poor man's custom property. Let's say you want to store something in that tag property, but then someone...
VBA Class initialization Options
In other languages, when you build a class, there are things called constructors which can take parameters when you instantiate the class as an object in order to initiate it. This is very handy, as you can abbreviate what you need to do into a much smaller number of...
Creating libraries for Access
We all re-use code in one form or another. Perhaps it begins by copying and pasting routines into a text file. Perhaps you've used people's online repositories of code that they place online, or you share your code in forum posts and search there for code help. Maybe...
My tools for planning and doing work
I've been musing on my work and planning out my 2025 1st quarter projects. I am a big proponent of planning and tracking changes. Here are some of the tools I use: For capturing ideas: Pocket Sized Field notebook and pen - At the simplest level for times where I do...
Using Command Line switches with a launcher
One strategy I have used to run automated processes with Access is to use Command Line switches. So to start up Access you use the Access program "MsAccess.exe", usually with the full path to it, then use the database you are opening as an argument, and finally you...
Launching an Access Application with update checks
I seem to have had a number of problems lately with a particular user who is running into issues trying to open an Access application multiple times. When doing so, the second instance will shutdown, but before doing so will display a box saying that Access already...
Access Fields bound to a function – updating once or per record
Another gotcha in Access is when you use a function of any kind as a query field or as a bound field on a form or report. This can also be done in Conditional Formatting fields in forms and reports. Let's say you bind a continuous form field to the builtin function...
How to programmatically tell the difference between changing a combo box by typing or by choosing from the dropdown
I had written some code for a client using the onChange and onKeyPress events of a ComboBox to be able to determine when the user had simply typed some text in, or whether they had selected an item from the dropdown list using the dropdown event. This was because the...
Forms that can’t write to records – Access and it’s usually helpful Lookup_ prefix
Today I had a weird problem that took me about 2 hours to track down. I had a normal form in Continuous view that was not triggering an error of any kind, but would not write to the record. It could see all the records, you could navigate to them, and I had a delete...
Do you use “Set”? Make sure you destroy it when you’re done!
Ok, so in some cases, VBA is nice to you and destroys variable references you use when you utilize the SET keyword. Let's say you do something like this: Dim dbObj As DAO.Database Set dbObj = CurrentDb This is in the context of some kind of function or sub, or maybe...
Do you have a deployment process?
It's important to have a process to deploy an application to a client or customer. If you don't have a process in place, Whatever method you use is not reproducible every time. I prefer to automate my deployment process as much as possible. I'd prefer to just copy a...
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