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@Crystal. Now THAT'S a big, post, Crystal! :) Thank you for taking the time to detail so much - if Neha, Clint & the Team implement your ideas you will have done a great service to the community and to the future of Access.

Try to get the picture right :)

instead list fields horizontally... list fields vertically using 2 listbox Fields_____________Properties

_________________________________

| Field 1 |__|Field Name:Field 1|

| Field 2 |__|Table: Table A____|

| Field 3 |__|Total:____________|

| _______ |__|Sort:_____________|

| _______ |__|Show:Yes__________|

_________________________________ Hope you get my picture Keep up the good work Access Team!

It would be useful if the Access query by example design grid were laid out as in SQL Server with fields in rows rather than in columns. Ideally this could be configurable at the option of the user. This will help when the user deals with queries with a lot of fields. In the current design grid the user has to scroll horizontally.

It will be useful to have support for multiple "diagrams" instead of one single relationship window to see table relationships graphically.

Code snippets as in the case of Visual Basic 2008 is useful for novice developers.

Some functionality could be added to the Access Developer Extensions to make the install location a "trusted location" after prompting the user during the install process. This will make deployment and subsequent use easy.

When creating a new query, give the user a configuration option to disable the "Add table" popup window.

Enable linked table manager in the runtime, or provide a macro to change table links based on a prompt.

Please make handling international date formats easy.

Hi Isaac, > Enable linked table manager in the runtime, or

> provide a macro to change table links based on

> a prompt. Try out Access MVP Armen Stein's free "J Street Access Relinker", currently shown as the second download, here: www.jstreettech.com/.../pg_developerDownloads.asp Tom Wickerath

Microsoft Access MVP

I'd like to add my vote for Isaac's suggestion:

"It will be useful to have support for multiple "diagrams" instead of one single relationship window to see table relationships graphically." While you're at it, preserve the relationships view when importing all tables + relationships into a new database container. Currently, if one has taken the time to carefully lay out a complicated relationships view, with minimal crossing of lines, the effort is lost when importing to a new database. Access MVP Alumni Stephen Lebans offers a solution: Save Relationships View

www.lebans.com/saverelationshipview.htm This is good, but it would be even nicer if that type of functionality was built into the product. Tom Wickerath

Microsoft Access MVP

Hi Issac, "Some functionality could be added to the Access Developer Extensions to make the install location a "trusted location" after prompting the user during the install process." You might want to try Access MVP Tony Toews' "AutoFEUpdater" for this: www.autofeupdater.com/.../features.htm This software is not used during an initial installation, but it does greatly simplify the task of distributing updates to an application. His newest version includes support for the Trust Center settings. Tom Wickerath

Microsoft Access MVP

RELATIONSHIP View Not Available

IMPORT & LINK Not Available

Object SAVE AS...

StatusBarText FIELD DESCRIPTIONS DISAPPEAR

RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM BETTER Hi Neha, more... '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Relationship View Not Available If one is in the Nav Pane, the Relationships icon is not always enabled ... why? Even if you don't want to, you have to open something to enable to icon. [ Feature Request: Don't disable the Relationship icon ] '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Import & Link Not Available If one is looking at the Relationship diagram, the ability to import is not available. I suspect is has something to do with the modal issue that arises with the Properties window ... but this decreases efficiency as more clicks are necessary to accomplish the task at hand. There are two choices:

1. Close the Relationship diagram

2. switch to another object I rarely want to close the relationship diagram when I am structuring data, so #1 is not an option for me. If I have nothing open, I usually double-click on any table in the nav pane. Then I just opened something I don't want open -- but doing so quickly activates the Import & Link group on the ribbon. Once I import or link to what I want, I then have to close the object I really didn't care about opening. Before the day is done, these extra clicks add up to a measurable amount of time. [ Feature Request: Don't disable the Import & Link group ] '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Object Save As When I create and save a query, it is often more efficient to stay in the query design, modify what is there, and save it with a new name. [ Feature Request: Add "Save As..." to the shortcut menu when one clicks on the tab of a tabbed document ] Now, you have to go into the Back Office and choose "Save Object As..." from the menu. While it is still the same number of clicks to get to the Save As... dialog box, I can no longer see the query. I cannot think of the best name without looking at the object. { It also seems to take longer to get into Back Stage than switching to another ribbon -- but that could be my imagination since the screen totally changes and that requires more of my attention for a longer time } Naming is important. Now I keep NotePad open as a scratch pad. I construct the name while I am looking at the object. Then I copy the name and paste it when prompted by the Back Stage. More steps and more time. Once the object is saved, I must then click on one of the other ribbon tabs (and waste another second to make that decision) to see my work again. It would be rare that I would want to stay in Back Stage. [ Feature Request: When Save As... is chosen and the dialog pops up to put in a name, close Back Stage and return me to my object ] '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ StatusBarText Field Descriptions disappear In Access 2010 client database, the StatusBarText does not change to show the Field Descriptions if I am flipping back and forth between the Design View and the Datasheet View of a table. This is aggravating if I am editing descriptions. Datasheet View will say "Ready" no matter what field is active if I have just come from design view. If I close the table and open it from the nav pane, the field descriptions display as they should in the Status Bar. Perhaps this is just a bug in the beta. '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yay! Save Closed Field List The relationship diagram now saves a closed field list -- yay! This is really nice when the field list is a copy. It used to be that field lists were automatically expanded to show the top 3 fields and I would have to resize it each time I opened the diagram. Thank you for fixing this. I also love being able to drag table(s) from the Navigation Pane to the Relationship Diagram ... and select multiple tables at once. These things save me time ... much more than the time I lose by having to click extra to open the diagram. Overall, the Relationship Diagram capabilities are better (now if those little keys would go away and key fields would be bolded again so the list wouldn't have to be so wide ... dreaming as I doubt Microsoft will go back to this but it sure would be nice) '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have literally spent my day documenting inefficiencies instead of doing my work ... and I have barely scraped the surface. As much as I enjoy this, I must now get back to something productive. I realize I am still using the beta and hope to see some of this rocky road due to that :) There is a lot of criticism here, but there are also a lot of positive things that have gone unsaid about: 1. the new interface. The biggest time saver, and something that makes putting up with the navigation pane not so painful is the Search Bar. This is a great feature 2. the new capabilities. Web enabling Access databases is tremendous. Just a baby now, so there is lots of growing to be done, and I look forward to seeing the power of Access extend to the Internet. ~~~ Neha, I would be happy to let you connect to my desktop and demonstrate some of these issues. If you are interested, please email me. Warm Regards, * (: have an awesome day :) *

@Chris Mills you're welcome ;) ... and thank you for your kind words "With 2010 we are unable to use an input mask if you also want to use the Date Picker. This doesn't make a lot of sense." This is not new to 2010; it has always been this way. I prefer no InputMask for dates anyway because the intellisense is good. - For dates, you can use slashes, dashes, or commas to separate the parts of the date. - When entering times, I love the intuitive expansions

8p gets expanded to --> 8:00:00 pm

7.30 gets expanded to --> 7:30:00 am ... but none of this works with an InputMask in place. I wrote a popup date picker for Access a long time ago. It never worked with an InputMask. This is also the case with the built-in popup date picker ... so this is expected behavior. The only time I use InputMask on a consistent basis is with phone numbers (store the symbols) -- but this makes it impossible to paste a phone number directly into the field (or control on a form). On a form, I can provide users with a way to paste a phone number if desired by temporarily setting the InputMask = "" for the control. If the user wants their number to follow the mask, I can run it through a routine that strips everything but digits and assigns that value to the control. Once data is in and saved, InputMask has no effect until data is changed. It would be nice, though, if the InputMask would not blow away date pickers ;) Warm Regards,

Crystal * (: have an awesome day :) *

"On a form, I can provide users with a way to paste a phone number if desired by temporarily setting the InputMask = "" for the control. If the user wants their number to follow the mask, I can run it through a routine that strips everything but digits and assigns that value to the control."

@Crystal

Can you provide an example of the routine that does that? Since the user simply pastes the number and the routine takes care of the rest, why should he/she be concerned whether it follows the mask?