Microsoft Access Gauges

Microsoft Access Gauge

In my continuing push to improve what can be done in Access, I decided to see how I could create gauges in Access to show progress, statuses, percentages, … in a visual manner.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but the end result was to leverage the power that the WebBrowser control has to offer and use one of many JavaScript libraries.

In my demo file, I offer 2 ways to approach its usage:

    • create a template index.html file with all the setting pre-established and simply automate pushing the value to display
    • use a class to gain full control of the gauge in real-time

So the choice is yours!

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Power Automate – Flow – Loosing HTML Tags

I thought I’d share a bug I came across a while back relating to Power Automate’s Flow.

Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of doing a lot of work with Flow to automate web form submissions into databases, generate e-mails, … Lots of fun stuff.

One thing most people recommend is to activate the Experimental Features (under settings) to gain access to up and coming features that have not yet been released, sort of like a preview I guess.  So I did.
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Getting Website Info Without Using a WebBrowser Control

In my original post:

Binding To An Existing Internet Explorer Instance
In my post you saw that when automating Internet Explorer, we cannot use GetObject to bind to an existing instance. So what is one to do exactly, if the wish to do so anyways? In fact, I kind of already gave the solution in my article Where we iterate over a collection of windows until…

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I demonstrated how we could use Internet Explorer automation to get information back from any site.

Then I demonstrated how you could do the same using the WebBrowser control in my article

Getting Website Info Using the WebBrowser Control
In my previous post: I demonstrated how easy it was to gather any information from a site using basic Internet Explorer (IE) automation. Sadly, IE is going to be killed off June 15th, refer to my post on the subject if you need more information on the subject So my post regarding IE automation will…

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Now these techniques are great if you want user interaction and them give them control over certain aspects as they can interact with IE/webbrowser control.

But what if you don’t need any user interaction?

There is another, simple, approach that can do exactly that all in VBA without any need for Internet Explorer or a form/webbrowser control!

Let’s dive in!

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Access Hyperlink SubAddress Bug?

Software Bug

This is still in the very early stages, but it is looking like there is a new bug that has recently surfaced impacting Hyperlink SubAddress.

Threads such as the following have started popping up:

Microsoft Access (Version 2205) breaks Hyperlink.SubAddress following on forms
Microsoft Access (Version 2205) 32-bit breaks the following of the Hyperlink SubAddress property for controls on forms. To replicate the issue, on a form in Design View, add a Label control with some text like "Click Me". In the Hyperlink SubAddress property for that control, click "..." and then select another database object like another form. In Form view, click the label control "Click me", and the database should open the form that the property points to. This behavior works correctly in all Access versions prior to 2204, but in version 2205 the click is ignored.
Hyperlink SubAddress
The hyperlink subaddress in all my databases has stopped working! Help!!
Macros no longer working on hyperlink subaddress event | Experts Exchange
Macros being run from the hyperlink subaddress event of a button are no longer

so be forewarned that it is suspected to be a bug with 2205 so try and rollback your installation to 2204 or earlier.

As always, I’ll update this post should I learn anything new on the subject.

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Connecting Power BI Desktop To An Encrypted Access Database

Power BI Desktop - Icon

In my previous article, I examined connecting Power BI Desktop to an unencrypted Access database.  You can read all the details at:

Power BI Desktop - Icon
Connecting Power BI Desktop To An Unencrypted Access Database
I’ve be dabbling with Power BI Desktop to build a dashboard for a client and thought I’d share just how easy it is to connect an unencrypted Access database to Power BI Desktop to be able to produce some truly nice charts. I emphasize Unencrypted, so no password on the database, as Microsoft has made…

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What About Encrypted (Password Protected) Databases?

Now, since every database should be encrypted as data should never be unsecured, I then turned my attention to connecting Power BI Desktop to a password protected Access database (encrypted database).

Access Connector

So, I followed the initial steps from my previous article; I went and selected the Access connector, selected my file and was quickly presented with the following error message:

Power BI Desktop - Access Connector - Not A Valid Password Continue reading →

Connecting Power BI Desktop To An Unencrypted Access Database

Power BI Desktop - Icon

I’ve be dabbling with Power BI Desktop to build a dashboard for a client and thought I’d share just how easy it is to connect an unencrypted Access database to Power BI Desktop to be able to produce some truly nice charts.

I emphasize Unencrypted, so no password on the database, as Microsoft has made it more complicated to connect to encrypted Access databases (that will be covered in my next post).

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SQL Server Express Installation Dialog Feedback

Yesterday, I set out to build a new VM to install SQL Server Express 2019 (freshly downloaded yesterday) to do some testing with.

I found an issue with the installation dialog and tried to forward my comments internally through existing contacts at Microsoft, but that failed. I also tried to find a direct line of communication, but couldn’t find one available to me. So I decided to post it here in the hopes someone will see it and manage to forward it to the proper authorities.

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Latest Office Update – Version 2204 Source of New Bugs?

Software Bug

My spidey-sense is tingling! (and not in a good way)

Access MVP Alum Gina Whipp has reported a series of issues with Access version 2204

• Property not found
• No current record.
• The search key was not found in any record.
• The object doesn’t contain the Automation object ‘YourControlName’ (And while that is control on the Form it is not used in the code anywhere. Oh, and yes that is the way it is spelled in the message but not on the Form.)

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Getting Website Info Using the WebBrowser Control

In my previous post:

Binding To An Existing Internet Explorer Instance
In my post you saw that when automating Internet Explorer, we cannot use GetObject to bind to an existing instance. So what is one to do exactly, if the wish to do so anyways? In fact, I kind of already gave the solution in my article Where we iterate over a collection of windows until…

Continue reading →

I demonstrated how easy it was to gather any information from a site using basic Internet Explorer (IE) automation.

Sadly, IE is going to be killed off June 15th, refer to my post on the subject if you need more information on the subject

RIP IE
Internet Explorer Automation Dead?
The writing appears to be on the wall for Internet Explorer, and by extension Internet Explorer automation. So if you have application utilizing Internet Explorer automation, start planning now!

So my post regarding IE automation will only prove useful for a couple months and then cease to work.

Short sighted as Microsoft is, they did not enable any form of automation via VBA for Edge, so that’s also out of the question!

Where does that leave us exactly?

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Binding To An Existing Internet Explorer Instance

In my post

VBA - Automate Internet Explorer to Log into a Website Automatically
Ever wanted to automate logging into a website. Well you can automate Internet Explorer to perform such tasks quite easily! Say you wanted to automate logging into your GMail account at the click of a button, nothing could be easier. Below are 2 different approach to do exactly that: Function OpenGMail1() Dim IE As Object…

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you saw that when automating Internet Explorer, we cannot use GetObject to bind to an existing instance.

So what is one to do exactly, if the wish to do so anyways?

In fact, I kind of already gave the solution in my article

Internet Explorer Save Tabs
This little demo demonstrates how you can iterate through all your open Internet Explorer windows/tabs and save the information to an Access table.  I find this to be much more powerful than bookmarks, etc. In Access this information can be grouped, searched, sorted, … Simply put, used much more easily. This can be a great…

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Where we iterate over a collection of windows until we find what we are looking for.

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