Category Archives: MS Access Reports

MS Access Reports

Modern Web Browser Control Leaving Hidden Processes

Microsoft Access - Modern Web Browser control

Just a quick FYI regarding the Modern Web Browser control. I’ve been doing some recent work and have been experiencing issues.

As previously reported, I’ve been getting blank displays even though the URL indicates it went to the site, nothing new here!

Now, after closing my database, I kept having a lock file that wouldn’t go away and I couldn’t delete it. Examining the Task Manager I came to see that Access remained running as a hidden process, and I also then saw a whole bunch of Microsoft Edge WebView2 processes running as well. It was only after killing all of these that I was able to finally delete the lock file and continue working.

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Microsoft Access Export Formatting Bug

I came across a thread on UtterAccess:

Export to HTML
I have a report which I would like to export to an HTML file to publish on the web...

and it brought back some memories of work I did for a client where I had to deal with this issue.
 

The Problem

The issue is quite simple, exports, with the exception of PDFs, do not properly export all formatting.

Let me illustrate the problem, or at least one example of them.

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Setting Font Color Based on The Background Color

I believe for a solution to truly be good a number of design considerations have to always be front and center when doing development. I wrote about some of those aspects in my article:

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 …

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One of those elements is to use contrasting color between text and the background so things are legible. If users have to strain to read content, graphics, … then we as developers have failed.
 
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Microsoft Access Option Group Border Width Bug

Software Bug

Recently I’ve been playing around a lot with Class Modules and Form/Report SubClassing:

Microsoft Access Form SubClassing 101
I recently published an article and video regarding converting form code (module) into a reusable Class Module: That said, I felt that perhaps, for complete novices to the subject of Class Modules and Microsoft Access Form SubClassing it may have been a little too much, too fast and want to take a step back and try and provide a 101 class on Form SubClassing.
Converting Form Code To A Reusable Class Module
Some people have asked me to cover the subject of Class Modules more, so I thought I’d start by demonstrating how we can take some form code and convert it all over to Class Module so we could then easily implement the exact same behavior on multiple forms with ease by using form Subclassing techniques. In my last post I demonstrated how we could alter Microsoft Access’ default behavior of always saving any change so that instead it relied on the user explicitly pressing a Save button otherwise changes were not committed.  If you aren’t familiar with it, then I’d…

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and I recently stumbled upon an oddity, a bug relating to an Option Group’s border width property.

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Microsoft Access Form SubClassing 101

I recently published an article and video regarding converting form code (module) into a reusable Class Module:

Converting Form Code To A Reusable Class Module
Some people have asked me to cover the subject of Class Modules more, so I thought I’d start by demonstrating how we can take some form code and convert it all over to Class Module so we could then easily implement the exact same behavior on multiple forms with ease by using form Subclassing techniques. In my last post I demonstrated how we could alter Microsoft Access’ default behavior of always saving any change so that instead it relied on the user explicitly pressing a Save button otherwise changes were not committed.  If you aren’t familiar with it, then I’d…

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That said, I felt that perhaps, for complete novices to the subject of Class Modules and Microsoft Access Form SubClassing it may have been a little too much, too fast and want to take a step back and try and provide a 101 class on Form SubClassing.

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Display Images In The Modern Web Browser Control While Preserving The Aspect Ratio

Yesterday, I presented an approach to manage to display an image in the old Web Browser control so it was resized to fit a given box while retaining its aspect ratio, you can read the details by reviewing

Display Images In The (Old) Web Browser Control While Preserving The Aspect Ratio
So I came across a recent question on UtterAccess and figured I’d share something I had done many years ago. So, I went digging, and well, couldn’t locate the project.  🙁 So, I figured I had done it once, I could simply do it again and I did. The entire thing here is resizing the image isn’t complicated, but preserving the aspect ration is a little tricky.  Normally, we would simply apply the desired height/width attributes to the image itself, but that will distort the image. I also didn’t want to get into downloading the images locally to be able…

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I figured I quickly demonstrate the required code to do the same in the new Modern Web Browser control since the is a better simpler approach that we can employ which reduces the HTML/CSS required.

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