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...

One of the areas we worked hardest at in Access 12 was in simplifying the UI and using available screen real estate. As you know in Access 2003 new objects are opened in a new window. It is not uncommon for a simple Access application session to have 8-10 windows open at a time. As new windows open the database container window (DBC) constantly gets pushed behind new objects as they open. I bet a few of you have worn out the F11 keystroke bring the DBC back into the foreground. Access 2003 Access...

I've had a series of posts talking about the guts of Access 12, but haven't really talked about the gestalt of the product yet. It’s time to fix that. There are 3 key goals for Access 12. First, dramatically expand the number of people who are successful using Access by making it much easier to build databases from scratch and by including a range ready to go solutions in the box that can be used as they are or modified as required. Second, make existing Access developers more efficient by improving...

This is a consolidated post covering the main things that came up about security. Again sorry for the delay on getting this out. Also note the post has links to the pictures rather than in-place thumbnails. I'll get them moved to a better home where I can reference them directly tomorrow. I took away 4 main issues from the comments on the security model: What is “disabled mode” and how does it work? What are “safe macros” and why would anyone ever use them? How can I tailor my app’s UI to specific...