This is a new segment we are going to do to get feedback from the blog readers about how you use the product. Today we are interested in how databases are deployed. An Access developer wants to test or preview changes to an app before they are seen by users. An Access developer wants to move an application from one location to another location. An Access developer wants to take an application offline while changes are made. How do you accomplish these things? Before joined the Access team I ran an...

The last couple of months we have been refining the Access 14 ribbons and working hard to polish features. One invaluable tool we have for making decisions is the Customer Experience Improvement Program . This database provides us anonymous statistics about stability problems and features you use most frequently. There are countless times through our release that product decisions are made based on the number of hits we have seen in a particular feature. The data gives us a pretty good idea what...

I've had a bunch of questions come in about this so I want to post here to give you all a quick update on the status of the Runtime issues for RTM. We're currently working on an update to the Runtime intended to address all the known issues which cause features that work in the full version of Access and which are supposed to work in the Runtime not to function correctly. Included in this list are export (HTML, PDF, etc...), a number of ADP issues, etc... This update will also bring the Runtime up...

There has been a series of questions on the Access blog and in the newsgroups about Access’s future as a tool for developers. Although it is WAY too early to nail down what we will do in the future, I can share a bit about how we think of Access going forward and our longer-term goals for the product. Access has become the most broadly used database in the world because of 5 key strengths: it is easy to author and allows users to get to a running solution quickly, it combines the power of a real...

Building modern looking data forms & reports in Access 2003 can be difficult. Doing the heavy lifting is easy - there are great tools for building the data-bound portions of the form - but making the interface look great can be a challenge and can require some creative hacks. UtterAccess even has a popular board devoted to helping people build better looking interfaces. In Access 12, we've built a number of features that will help people build great looking apps with far less code, time and effort...

At long last, I can show and discuss the new Ribbon UI in Access 12. There have been a few comments asking about this in the blog, and I haven't been able to show the whole thing yet (anyone that has seen the Beta 1 version of Access will find this layout quite different, although the concepts are the same). Finally we've gotten the layout mostly nailed and can now talk about it. At long last, here's how controls will work in Access 12. Overview of the New UI As you're probably aware, most of the...

Up to this point, I've discussed building traditional Access client-side databases and run through some of the new tools and techniques that are available. This represents a very important part of the work done in Access 2007, but it is only one part. In addition, we've done a lot of work to make it easy to build client-server databases against Windows SharePoint Services. Doing this allows users who don't have the skills or privileges to be SQL Server DBAs to still get the manageability and stability...

The following is a post from Marci Billow, the UA manager for Access (and other teams in Office). The UA team has done a tremendous amount of work in improving help, and wanted to spread the word. __________________________________________________ During the past few years, you shared a number of concerns and suggestions for how we might improve assistance content and features for Microsoft Office Access. Your feedback regarded two primary areas, Help functionality and content organization. Help...

Mike Stowe has a great article and video demo of how to an add-in to a Access 2007 deployment package created from the Package Solution Wizard. He chains the XPS/PDF addin as the example but you can use the technique to install any addin package with your runtime application. On a side note--what do folks think about the video demos the team has been producing? Have they been useful?

I know lots of you are very anxious to get your hands on this build. You can go download the SP1 runtime. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D9AE78D9-9DC6-4B38-9FA6-2C745A175AED&displaylang=en This version of the Access 2007 Runtime contains files whose versions are slightly higher than the level of the same files that are updated by Office 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For additional information about Office 2007 Service Pack 1 and the Access 2007 issues fixed by Office 2007...