Friday, April 30, 2004

Excel 2002 Sample: Five Handy Charting Tips This download includes a collection of handy add-ins and techniques for use with Excel charts focused toward creating and working with Gantt charts.

Excel 2003 Sample: Create an Expense Report Template This sample demonstrates how you can reuse legacy forms by converting them to XML data maps in Excel through the use of XML schemas.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

An Excellent MS Office 2003 Resource Office2003 Zone from officezealot.com

Office 2000 VBA Programmers Guide On-Line Version

Basics for Building Microsoft Office Access 2003 Runtime-Based Solutions MSDN article on how to use the MS Access 2003 Runtime with the Microsoft Access 2003 Developer Extensions so users without Microsoft Access 2003 installed can still use Access-based applications.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Integrating Word, Excel, and InfoPath with SQL Server 2000
New article on how Excel 2003, Word 2003, and InfoPath 2003 provide a variety of ways to connect to and interact with SQL Server data.

Microsoft Office XP to Microsoft Office 2003 Migration Issues
Office XP to Office 2003 migration issues. This paper discusses the possible problem areas administrators might encounter when moving from Office XP to Office Office 2003.

Microsoft Office 2000 to Microsoft Office 2003 Migration Issues
Office 2000 to Office 2003 migration issues. This document discusses the possible problem areas administrators might encounter when moving from Office 2000 to Office Office 2003.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

UK Access User Group Seminar 13th May 2004 MS Access guru, Ken Getz, will be showing how to exploit the power of .NET using Access applications and will be reviewing the new Visual Studio Tools for integration with Word and Excel. For more information visit www.ukaug.co.uk.

Accessing Microsoft Office Data from .NET Applications In this MSDN article see how to get Microsoft Access and Excel data out of your Office files and into your .NET applications, and how the OLE DB provider can be used to write generic code that makes working with .xls or .mdb files easier.

OneNote 2003 Service Pack 1 Preview Microsoft® Office OneNote™ 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Preview provides an early look at bug fixes and feature enhancements that will be shipped as part of Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 SP1.


Sunday, April 18, 2004

Spring Cleaning I have the following fully-licensed legacy MS Office Software for sale:

. MS Office Professional 4.3 (16-bit) OEM CD in original case + free bonus Norton Training CD

. MS Access 2 Developers Toolkit Access 2 (16-bit) run-time redistributable license and files on floppies with printed manuals in original package

. MS Access 95 v7.0 (32-bit) on floppies with printed manual in original package

Best offer gets a free copy of NFR MS Windows NT4 BackOffice Small Business Server + two client licenses (includes Alpha Processor version) - 3 CDs in original case.

Payment by PayPal. Air-mail postage/insurance from Australia extra. Offers close Friday 23rd April 2004.

Thursday, April 15, 2004

MSDN Access articles featuring articles from assorted MS Access MS Office journals.

Using Visual Basic and ASP with XML to Generate Excel 2003 Workbooks In this article learn different ways to use XML files and XML style sheets to create formatted Excel workbooks. You can create XML templates using either ASP or Visual Basic to create Excel workbooks.

Ms Access ADO.NET OleDb Database Connection with OleDBDataReader This tutorial explains how to create a connection to an MS Access Database using an OleDB Connection Object

Using Schemas with Word 2003 and Excel 2003 MS Access guru Mary Chipman provides an easy to follow introduction for working with the new XML functionality in the Microsoft Office System by walking through common XML tasks in Word 2003 and Excel 2003.

Accessing Web Services in Excel Using Visual Studio Tools for the MS Office 2003 This article demonstrates how to integrate a stock information Web service into an Excel 2003 worksheet using Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System.

First Look at ADO.NET 2.0 ADO.NET 2.0 extends and enhances ADO.NET in multiple directions.

Office XP Document: Update Deployment White Paper Microsoft Office XP Update Deployment White Paper

Office 2003 XML Schemas This download contains documentation on the Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 and Microsoft Office Visio 2003 schemas.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

I recently un-installed my trial version of MS Office 2003. The un-install was less than complete leaving my Windows XP Registry in a mess with nearly 130 invalid registry keys and unable to open any .chm Help files. I found an excellent freeware product, RegScrubXP, that easily cleaned my Registry in one pass, locating errors that more high profile and costly products didn't. This also begs the question if Microsoft can't get an un-install right... ?

A New MSDE Sample Database New scripts for creating the Northwind and pubs sample databases for use with SQL Server 2000 and MSDE 2000.

Recent MS Access Knowledge Base Articles:

Use this URL: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;xxxxx
where xxxxx is the Article No.

Access
832357 Access 2003 hotfix package: February 29, 2004
839022 How to obtain the latest Office XP Service Pack for Access 2002 Runtime
837136 Problem using linked tables in an Access 2003 database under SourceSafe control
833857 Description of Microsoft Access 2002 Update: March 23, 2004
832357 Access 2003 hotfix package: February 29, 2004
830001 Office 2003 hotfix package: March 5, 2004
838593 You may receive "Not a valid password" error message when you try to open a password-protected Access database
839022 How to obtain the latest Office XP Service Pack for Access 2002 Runtime
837136 Problem using linked tables in an Access 2003 database under SourceSafe control
837812 You may receive "Required registry information is missing and this application cannot run" error message when you try to open an .mde file
835704 Office 2003 hotfix package: March 18, 2004
838902 Access 2000 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: March 24, 2004
838594 You may receive an error message when you try to upsize your Access database by using the Upsizing Wizard
837003 Access 2003 hotfix package: March 17, 2004
837937 You may receive an error message when you try to save an edited record that is based on a multi-table view in Access
837937 You may receive an error message when you try to save an edited record that is based on a multi-table view in Access
838902 Access 2000 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: March 24, 2004
835704 Office 2003 hotfix package: March 18, 2004
837003 Access 2003 hotfix package: March 17, 2004
838594 You may receive an error message when you try to upsize your Access database by using the Upsizing Wizard
292634 How to Use a Query to Filter Unique Data

Access 2000
838593 You may receive "Not a valid password" error message when you try to open a password-protected Access database

Access 2002
833857 Description of Microsoft Access 2002 Update: March 23, 2004

Access 2003
838911 You may receive "This feature isn't installed, or has been disabled" error message when you use wizards in Access 2003
830001 Office 2003 hotfix package: March 5, 2004

Thursday, April 08, 2004

A Quick and Easy Way to create a Shortcut in MS Access:

Private Function fnMakeShellShortcut()
On Error GoTo Err_fnMakeShellShortcut

' Add a Reference to the Windows Script Host Object Model
' using Tools, References... to locate and register
' C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSHOM.OCX

Dim oShell As IWshShell_Class ' Shell object
Dim oShortcut As IWshShortcut_Class ' ShortCut object
Dim sDesktop As String ' Desktop Path
Dim sTargetPath As String ' Path to application .exe
Dim sQUOTE As String

sQUOTE = Chr(34)
Set oShell = New IWshShell_Class ' Create shell object

' Get Desktop path
sDesktop = oShell.SpecialFolders.Item("Desktop")

' Create shortcut on desktop
Set oShortcut = oShell.CreateShortcut(sDesktop & "\MyAcc2000DBase.lnk")

' Shortcut properties
sTargetPath = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2000\Office")
With oShortcut
.TargetPath = sTargetPath & "\msaccess.exe"
.IconLocation = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2000\Office\msaccess.exe, 0"
.Arguments = sQUOTE & "C:\Program Files\My Database Folder\MyDatabase.mdb" & sQUOTE
.WorkingDirectory = sDesktop
.Description = "My Database"
.Save
End With

Exit_fnMakeShellShortcut:
Exit Function

Err_fnMakeShellShortcut:
Select Case Err.Number
Case 0
Resume Next
Case Else
MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
End Select

Resume Exit_fnMakeShellShortcut

Resume 0 '*** For debugging purposes only
Exit Function

End Function




NSW MSDN article Microsoft Office Word 2003 XML: Memo Styles Sample, which examines some common XML-related tasks using the menus, task panes, and other parts of the user interface.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Your boss wants a signature panel at the bottom of the last page of an MS Access report. Try this technique:

1. For the Signature panel, place a TextBox control named, txtSignature, in the PageFooter section of the report, format it as required, and set the Visible property to False. Save the report.

2. In the report's module, add the following code to the OnPrint Event, so that the Signature Panel is visible only on the last page of the report:

Private Sub PageFooter_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
If Me.Page = Me.Pages Then
Me.txtSignature.Visible = True
Else
Me.txtSignature.Visible = False
End If
End Sub




Using Visual Basic and ASP with XML to Generate MS Excel 2003 Workbooks A new article from MSDN on different ways to use XML files and XML style sheets to create formatted Excel workbooks. You can create XML templates using either ASP or Visual Basic to create Excel workbooks.

Access 2003/2002 Sample: Using Parameters with Queries and Reports Sample Database A new download from MS Office Online. This sample Microsoft Access database provides example forms, queries, and reports that demonstrate using query parameters, as well as using a custom form to supply parameters to a query or report.

Access Knowledge Base Browser The Articles database for my Access Knowledge Base Browser has been just updated. The number of article references has been increased by nearly 100 to 2,546 article titles. The KB Browser is an easy way to search the on-line Microsoft Access Knowledge Base. Existing Users can click the "Update KB Table" button on the Application Toolbar to get the update. KB Browser is free for all buyers of a Premium Access Tool from aadconsulting.com, with prices starting from a low US$9.95.

Use Ezy Data for a painless move from spreadsheets to databases. Spreadsheet applications like MS Excel easily handle simple databases, and are fast and easy to learn, as long as data fits into a flat list of rows and columns. This kind of worksheet table is called a flat-file database and is adequate if your needs are simple, but if they become more complex, then users need a database application such as MS Access. Trouble is Access is intimidating for users and not as easy to learn. This is where Ezy Data comes in. Ezy Data is a stand-alone database application for Windows that lets users easily create relational databases of tables and queries for entering, storing, viewing and analysing data. They can import data from spreadsheets or other databases, and create an unlimited number of databases. Each database is self-contained with its own user-friendly switchboard. Databases can be opened natively in MS Access97 or tables imported into all later versions of Access. Users can choose from 40 pre-designed table templates, and there are three ready-built business-oriented sample databases. Ezy Data 4 is now available at a special introductory price of only US$34.95.



Sunday, April 04, 2004

Create Gantt Charts online for free at Help-U-Plan

Thinking of Upgrading to Access 2003? Read all about it
Claimed! Another give-away First to email will get:
1. MS Office 2003 Pro Evaluation Kit (3 CDs), and
2. MS Office Developer Kit 2003
New MS Office and MS Access downloads from Microsoft:

Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Access 2002 Runtime Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Access 2002 Runtime provides the latest updates to the Access 2002 Runtime. Contains security enhancements, and stability and performance improvements.
Word 2003: XML ViewerView MS Word 2003 XML files as HTML in Internet
Explorer.
Consuming ADO.NET DataSets in the Microsoft Office System Linking MS Office solutions and ADO.NET using COM interoperability and the new XML features of Microsoft Office 2003.