Category Archives: MS Access General Information

Creating Multi-Lingual Databases, What’s Involved

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I recently contributed to a forum thread, Multi Language Support, regarding multi-lingual databases and thought I’d elaborate a little on the subject based on my experience.

The Obvious

When you start thinking of trying to develop a multi-lingual application you look at your forms and reports and quickly realize that you need to create the means to provide translation for things like:

  • Buttons
  • Labels

The Less Obvious

Quite often, people overlook a great many other aspects of the database that need translating like:

  • Form/Report Captions
  • Combobox/Listbox Row Sources
  • Control Default Values
  • Control Tip
  • Tags if you use them in certain ways (generate pop-ups, …)
  • Error Messages, Dialogs, Prompts, …
  • Date/Time values as different languages often use different formats
  • Documentation

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Access – Authorized Users Control

As part of Securing your Database I mention:

Lockdown Which User Can Run Your Database

Another easy process to implement is to have a table in your database that lists all the windows usernames that are allowed running the database. At startup, retrieve the current user’s network username and then see if it is in your user table. If it isn’t close the application.

Note: I actually send an e-mail to the db admin when this occurs with certain information (PC name, Username, IP address, Date/Time, …).Daniel Pineault

I have had a couple inquiries about this and thought today I’d explain the process.

There are basically two, very similar solutions. Both approaches involve using a hidden form (you could also do this using an AutoExec macro) that you set as your database’s ‘Display Form’ or automatically open as part of your startup routine.

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GUI Design Basics

I’m starting this post, which will grow in time, because of feedback through a recent blog poll.

What are some basic design principles that should be remembered when designing an application, any application?

Most design principles are universal and not Access specific.  They can apply just as much for Access Forms & Reports, as Excel Userforms, PowerPoint presentations or … Web Application. Here are a few of my basic recommendations.

I’ve split this discussion up into the following sections:

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Access – Encryption and Password Protection

I thought I’d briefly cover the subject of Access database encryption and password protection.

Historically, when we talk about the mdb file format, password protection was pretty much useless and could easily be cracked with free and widely available online tools. With the newer accdb file format things changed and cracking them seems harder. One word of caution here is that I’ve just recently been made aware that a company is developing, or has developed, an Access password cracker that they say can do so nearly instantaneously.

That said, it is my personal opinion that every database should be password protected.  I take things a step further and, not only password protect them, but also place them on an encrypted drive.

Password Protecting Your Database Through the GUI

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Access – The Golden Rule of Development

This is a very short post, but a VERY important one!

I keep seeing people posting questions in forums relating to databases not working and errors such as:

Access - Error - Unrecognized Database Format
Access – Error – Unrecognized database format
Access-Error-Compatibility Warning
Access – Error – Compatibility Warning – This database uses some features which may be incompatible with the current version of Microsoft Access.
Access-Error-The Database You Are Trying To Open Requires A Newer Version Of Microsoft Access.
Access – Error – The database you are trying to open requires a newer version of Microsoft Access.

caused by not being aware of the No. 1 rule of development, especially for Access.

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Access – Report to Fit Page

Size To Fit Report

One major aspect that trips up many novice developers is managing to fit the content within a letter page. As such, we see questions relating to scaling or sizing to fit a page. Sadly, this is one function that Access does not possess.

The obvious solution is to setup the report page to the proper page size and then resize the content to fit those boundaries (minus the margins).

That said, there is a simple little trick that you can employ to get around this limitation should you be in a situation that you can’t redesign a report or need to enlarge or shrink a report for some reason.

  1. Generate the report in whatever page size that it is design for
  2. Export the report as a PDF (External Data -> Export -> PDF or XPS)
  3. Open the generated PDF and then print it, selecting Fit to page as the Scale

This way you can print any size Access report on any other size page.

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Access WebBrowser Control

The Access WebBrowser control is one of the greatest and most frustrating controls available to any Access developer!

The beauty of this control is it enables you to gain the power of the web within your database. On the other hand, I have found it very frustrating to program as many properties/methods available to the WebBrowser control in other platforms are simply not implemented in Access’ WebBrowser control. I have also found documentation and concrete advanced examples to be a rare commodity making development more frustrating than it should normally be.

Looking For Information About The New Modern 'Edge'/'WebView2'/'Chromium' Web Browser Control?
If you are looking for information about the new Modern ‘Edge’/’WebView2’/’Chromium’ Web Browser control then take a look at the following instead:

Access Modern Web Browser Control
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Access Modern Web Browser Control
So, we have a new ‘Modern’ Web Browser control, some people have also referred to it as the Edge Web Browser control! Well that is if you are running MS365 and using the BETA or Current Update Channels. I thought, I would start documenting the new ‘Modern’ Web Browser control, like I had done for…

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So I thought I’d put ‘pen to paper’, in a manner of speaking, to share some of what I’ve learnt.

In the this article I will touch upon

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MS Access – Improved SQL Editor

Here’s another useful tool for those of you that work with RAW SQL and don’t use the QBE.

Like many features in Microsoft Access, the SQL Editor, SQL View has not made the slightest forward movement in 2-3 decades!

MS Access - Standard SQL Editor

The Query by Example Design View is exceptional, but the SQL View is primitive (to put it politely). It doesn’t even support the most basic text editor functions that even Notepad has, and Notepad isn’t the thing to be aiming for when you consider other proper text editors such as NotePad++, PSPad, …! Currently, in the SQL View of the SQL Editor, you can’t even:

  • Use Ctrl+A to select all the text
  • Perform a Find/Replace
  • Use TABs to indent your SQL Statements
  • …

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