You can use your favorite social network to register or link an existing account:
Or use your email address to register without a social network:
Sign in with these social networks:
Or enter your username and password
Forgot your password?
Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.
No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.
So while most people spend their free time with family, sports or relaxing; I like to make Access Databases. One of things I heard over and over during my years building apps for customers at M7 was;
Access database are so ugly!!!! They look like windows 3.1
Design is an art and for myself I know function interests me much more than form. So as I put this database together I have been thinking about the tools I use to make Access apps look great and though I should share.
Often times clients have a set of company colors but usually you one get one or two and sometimes none at all. I use this great website called Colour Lovers which allows designers to upload color schemes and rate/share them with the community. I picked this pallette for my application. Colour Lovers makes it really easy to create an application that has a consistent theme and takes the guesswork out of figuring out which colors go with which. The other cool thing you can do is is create a pattern based off the colors automatically .
Now that we have a color scheme I like to create a tiled background from my forms (Access 2007 feature). You can use any graphics program for this, I like Adobe Fireworks. I always leave some room at the top (pattern) for my application title and create a nice little place for my navigation to sit. Since you are tiling you can make the image narrow (as wide as one pattern) but tall (I go 1000px) so that it doesn't repeat. This makes the image small so your app doesn't get bloated. It also makes it easy to lay regular elements on top (buttons, text boxes, labels) and keep them simple. Here is what the navigation is starting to look like.
Next post I will talk about laying out your content, sub navigation and some easy ways to make search boxes look nicer. Oh and here is a sneak peek of what the whole application looks like so far. After I am finished we will be posting it as a template on Office Online.
Comments: (11) Collapse
How do you actually use that pallete in Access?
Thanks for the tips and I look forward to seeing the finished application.
well, my apps do not look like windows 3.1 :-) i always spend some time in the design, before deply, but. . . My friend your ideas are so great! You should also talk how you store the images in the database, and how you display your images. For example, in your second image, you display, leads and action. . . but when you see the lead has a higher squared than actions, how do you make that happen in access :-) I know in html with css will be easy, by changing the code a litle bit, but access do not have that capability, also in.Net by usong wpf, is also possible. But how in access, so i will like to know how you will handle the manu changes by using your pictures. By the way, great work. . .
thank u for posting such useful blogs i would like to know how to set security levels in ms access. whenever i create a database and give it for use, all the users can access the design also. can i prevent users from accessing the design part? ie, i don't want users to see the tables and change it. can u pl help?
Cant wait for the complete application and other have already mentioned the question I have, so the answer to them will be very helpful. thanks
A much overlooked subject - Access needs to develop a sharper, slicker image. Can't wait to see the finished app.
>You should also talk how you store the images in the database, and how you display your images. Actually, that is a new feature of the “new” image control in 2007. It is really slick, does not bloat the database anymore, and even more cool as you can see is it allows you use “different” images in a continues form. A *very* nice update to access by the way. This means we don’t have to resort to some 3rd party control to display images in a continuous forms. (and, you can even use path names to external files, and not have to write ANY code to make the display update like we did in the past). In a sense, we can now build a whole new class of applications that use images, and do it with MUCH less work then with previous versions of access. Keep in mind that you can also make reports with hyperlinks (clickable to drill down for more details) and filter options. So, that 2nd screen shot could actually be created with a report. >know in html with css will be easy, by changing the code a litle bit, but access do not have that capability Actually now ms-access has “themes” and they much follow the 8 colors that a css sheet has. (again, another really great feature of a2007). >but when you see the lead has a higher squared than actions, how do you make that happen in access :-) I not looked close, but another really great feature of 2007 is that buttons allow both text and an image now (about time!!!). This is another really great feature of 2007. Actually, when you throw in the new report layout system with stacked groupings, the new report writer is reason alone to get 2007, even ignoring all of the new cool layout and style features for forms.
Excellent article, Ryan - we're rapidly reaching the point where Access databases need to look sharper and it's good see the Access team is on top of it.
Shame! Shame! Adobe Fireworks? There is such a thing as Microsoft Expression Studio 2, you know! I have to admit, however, that I also use Colour Lovers and wonder why Microsoft, for all of its software+services babble, hasn't come up with something similar? After all, Microsoft invented UI engineering for PCs; they must have *some* idea about UI development for the Web...
While I like the graphic design you have come up with my response to the statement "Access database are so ugly!!!! They look like windows 3.1" is that my customers expect fast, extremely functional solutions with a quick turn around. No one has ever mentioned that they care what it looks like. I am able to meet the above expectations w/ Access. Looking at your solution, which looks very nice by the way, I can't help but thinking that, for a business user, this is a monumental waste of space. You only have 6 records on the screen.
I agree, a lot of people think that way. I like to dress mine up so that people think that its a web application instead of MS Access. Try to stay away from traditional layouts and controls (command buttons).
Comments: (loading) Collapse