CAUG Meeting Notes

CAUG Meeting Notes

Date: 12/18/2007

Topic: Access 2007 and Beyond.

Presenters: Clint Covington and Steven Greenberg of Microsoft.

Summary:

Clint Covington presented an overview of what’s new in Access 2007.

One of the objectives of the 2007 version was to make it easier for new users to begin using Access.  To that end users are

now presented with an array of ready-made Access applications when they start Access 2007.

For developers some key new features include:

-               A split form allowing data to be displayed in datasheet and form view at the same time.

-               Alternate line colors in datasheets.

-               The file formats 2000 and 2003 are still supported with the .mdb filename extension.

-               A new file format with the .accdb filename extension supports the newest features including multi-valued data items.

-               Greatly enhanced filtering functionality via the shortcut menus.

Probably the biggest change to Access 2007 (and all of Office 2007) is the new Ribbon Menu.  For the end user it takes a little getting used to.

For developers used to creating their own custom menus and toolbars the ribbon is a major change indeed.  Look for CAUG meeting topic covering

ribbon programming this spring.

Steven Greenberg covered what’s coming in the next version of Access.  I cannot go into great detail in this post, but suffice to say that Access

will be greatly expanding it’s horizons in conjunction with Sharepoint.  Creating and, more importantly, deploying Access applications will be

easier and more powerful than ever.

The following are some links of interest provided by Clint and Steven:

Ribbon extensibility -

 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb187398.aspx

Migrating your app -

 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb203849.aspx

Interactive guide --

 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA102388991033.aspx

Access Development Team blog:

 http://blogs.msdn.com/access.

Clint Covington’s three part series covering Access 2007 tips and

 tricks:

http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/12/18/access-2007-tips-and-tricks-from-the-access-team.aspx

A post about a great site called access-freak.com that helps

 ease the transition from 2003 to 2007:

http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/07/12/easing-the-transition-from-access-2003-to-2007.aspx

Here are two more great entries:

http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/11/29/accessjunkie-s-updated-2007-content.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/08/13/new-access-2007-articles-on-office-online.aspx