In part 2 of this series, we considered using LIKE and wildcards in query criteria to find inexact matches. Good stuff - but what if you could get the query to apply criteria that are supplied when it is run? What if you could make a query ask for input? Good news! You can make a query ask for input, and it's actually very easy.

Access has powerful tools that you can use in query criteria to retrieve inexact matches: wildcard characters, and the LIKE operator.

Ben Clothier at http://accessexperts.net has a two-part review of the evolution of Access working with SharePoint. Part one is an overview of the Access/SharePoint integration. Part 2 is an in-depth look at Access data storage in SharePoint.

It happens all the time: there's a list of choices but it doesn't have the choice you want. No worries! You can enable folks to add items to a lookup field.

A customer's post on TechNet brought one of my colleague's attention to an error folks are seeing after applying SP1 to 64-bit Access installations and then trying to use a wizard:

The database cannot be opened because the VBA project contained in it cannot be read. ... To open the database and delete the VBA project without creating a backup copy, click OK.

The good folks at FMS, Inc. have kindly made the latest version of their Access/VBA development tools freely available for use until August.

If you think back to around Valentine's Day of this year, you might remember our post about AccessLove, a social-media-type Access web database that became very popular with Microsoft employees. As a result of that response, the creators of AccessLove decided to present a "how we did it" session to show how easily anyone could build a similar system from scratch. We recorded that session, and now you can watch the videos and follow along with the procedures on Office.com!

Luke Chung of FMS, Inc. has published an interesting article that discusses some of the negative perceptions about Access, especially within enterprise settings. Luke argues that Access can be a big productivity booster for individuals and teams in the enterprise, and that IT departments should not put restrictions on the use of Access.

The folks at UtterAccess have added two new libraries to their Wiki Main Page:

The Class Library has sample class modules and demonstration applications that illustrate how to use the classes, while the API Library lists possible declaration(s) for various Windows API (Application Programming Interface) procedures in VBA7 compatible syntax.

Today's post is contributed by Lois Wang from the Access team.

J.R. Arredondo and I had the opportunity to be at TechEd 2011 in Atlanta last week. We had two talks: a small interactive session called ”Empowering information workers with Access” and a big-room presentation called “Managing Access databases in your organization with SharePoint” that gathered around 120 people. I wanted to share with you some of our takeaways from discussions with the attendees.