Customizing the New Access UI

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Ribbon in Access Project file — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:48:18 GMT

I create a table in an Access Project with 2 fields, VarChar & Text (because in sql server there is no text & memo)... My project does't show the customized ribbons...

What can I do?

re: Customizing the New Access UI

marcnz — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:00:26 GMT

Can anyone tell me where to find the names for each option/menu that can be disabled or enabled in a customized application? I try to get rid of the top form tab where user can right-click, even if the right-click is disabled on the form. Very annoying.

Thanks.

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Ken Hayden — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:45:52 GMT

I'm a part time and amateur developer responsible for an Access based system for thirty guys who work from my HO and from remote offices. I find Access 2007 (Beta 2) an exciting opportunity to roll out solutions I have needed for some time (easy access to sharepoint being the main one). I love the new ribbon but I need to have custom icons displayed depending on the data. I have tried everything to get them and the closest I can get is a non-tranparent image! I've done it using .Net and directly in Word or Excel. Anyone got a simple solution (without using .Net) or is this coming in Beta 2 TR or the release version?

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Alan Cossey — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 11:08:03 GMT

I know the title of this thread is "Customizing the New Access UI", but there has been quite a bit of discussion about the non-repairing of User Level Security (ULS) with the new Access 2007 file format, which is, for me, a huge issue. You may be interested in a thread over at UtterAccess.com where Brent Spaulding and I (Alan Cossey) have been trying to set up a method to get back to this. At present our method is just stopping users from access data in tables and queries directly (we hope!) and we have not got down to specifying who can use what forms and reports. That latter part could be done in a variety of ways, e.g. checking the user's Windows ID with code, and so we are not looking at that bit. For us the most important bit is that we think we are getting some control back by stopping the user from getting at tables and queries directly. The basic idea is to open a connection (via a class so that the connection is not public) to the tables or queries in a separate database using code with that database's password embedded in the code, then open our form or report, then close the connection. It seems that if this is done, the user can use this particular form or report OK, but they can't open other forms or reports from the Navigation Pane. Since this involves security, we may well have missed something and there may be a huge hole in our thinking, which we hope someone will find before we put too much faith in this method. Hopefully, however, we are heading down the right track and would be interested in people's thoughts.

Note we have assumed that the user will be able to always get to the Navigation Pane and see what forms and reports are in the front end. The thread is at www.utteraccess.com/.../showflat.php

re: Customizing the New Access UI

StepUP — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:53:42 GMT

Mike, I agree with your assessment on ULS 100%. Having permissions on individual objects has always one of the key features I use in my apps, in spite of the security flaws. I would have no problem writing my own security structure within an application, but that is rendered pretty much useless with the all or nothing "Trust Center" model as I understand it. If anyone can think of a way to make individual objects secure with the new design, I'd love to hear it. As it stands now, I see no reason to upgrade to Access 2007 from a developer perspective. Clint stated that he finds it far easier to develop apps in 2007, but I have been at a loss to find this to be the case, with the exception of layout view in reports. Taking away ULS, menus and toolbars, and replication is far too big of a price to pay for some of other feautures that have been added.

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Mike Groh — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:26:10 GMT

Thanks for the tip, Clint! I hadn't noticed the 'grouping' shortcut. Office 12 makes good use of right-clicks. I haven't worked enough with the Search Bar to discover all its options, but I like it a lot, especially for large projects.

I'd still like a "list view" of db object details, though. I'm sure FMS or someone will create an add-in to provide that sort of lookup.

StepUP: Thanks for the compliment on the article! Initially I started out to show how many of the reader "wish" responses had made it into Access 2007, but quickly ran out of space. It goes without saying that a lot of suggestions didn't make it into Access 2007, but a ton of other new things made it. So, I reduced the piece to "10 features" -- not even, necessarily, a "top 10" list.

My hunch is that we'll see a ribbon customization tool for Access before too long -- Clint & Erik's comments make it clear they understand the need for a way to graphically customize ribbons. Clearly, using the "Add In" ribbon to support legacy toolbars & menus is a compromise. I'm sure we'd all rather have an intelligent conversion tool that'd reproduce toolbars and menus as 'real' ribbons.

I'm with you on ULS, though. Microsoft is focusing exclusively on data security by suggesting we look to SQL Server and Sharepoint as security vehicles. The suggestion that we use a database password to secure Access application fails to address the need to secure different portions of an app from different segements of users. The only real solution is to stick with the 2000/2003 format MDB, which sort of defeats the reason to migrate to Access 2007. I don't know what it is about the ACCDB format that makes ULS and replication so difficult. After all, security and data exchange are two fundamental operations (and requirements) in database systems.

re: Customizing the New Access UI

StepUP — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:29:16 GMT

Mike, I just read your Advisor article on Access 2007. Nice job on summarizing the new features, and I was glad to see your comments about the Ribbon interface and removal of ULS and replication. I posted a comment to your article and hope other Advisor readers will do the same. I would love to see a rallying of developers who are as concerned as I am about what is being done to Access 2007. I say..lets start a movement to save Access!!!

re: Customizing the New Access UI

clintc — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:29:09 GMT

Mike,

>> I would have preferred a simple right-click on the Nav >> Pane, then select "Add Group" or something In custom groups you can multiselect objects and right click and choose Add to group | Group names. There is also a way to create new groups. >> I still have discovered how you can easily tell which >> form is newer than some other form. I really wish the >> Nav Pane supported columns so we could see >> modification and creation dates easily. There is a grouping option for Created Date and Last Modified date. These options should make it easier to see what objects were recently changed. Also, if you right click on the header there is a View | Details option. We don't list them in a table but with the grouping headers the objects should start falling out into nicely grouped buckets. I also find the search bar makes it really easy to find specific objects (especially, if you are using a naming convention).

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Isaac — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 19:00:11 GMT

I've some Access applications with a "main" Menu Bar AND a ToolBar with the more common options. How I make to obtain the same one, with Access 2007?

re: Customizing the New Access UI

Mike Groh — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:41:01 GMT

Some time ago I ran an article titled "Access Wish List" (or something like that) and invited people to add their own wishes to a blog on the Advisor site (my.advisor.com/.../13958). Over the last year and a half this article has picked up about 150 responses (Advisor only posts the last 30 or so). One of the more frequently-requested "wishes" was the ability to add a custom group to the Database Window, and add all different types of objects (tables, queries, forms) to it. You could, for instance, put all the "Data Entry" objects into one group, and all the "Reporting" objects into another. And, even though you add an object (like a table) to a group, it still appears along with all the other tables when you view by object type.

Access 2007 supports grouping -- you can add custom groups and add any type of object you want to it. Right-click on the Nav Pane's header and select "Navigation Options". The left side is "Categories" (which I haven't quite figured out!) and the right side is groups. Use the Add Group button to add a group, then when you return to the Nav Pane, use the Navigate to Category>Custom to show the group you created. You can then drag and drop from the "Show All" list to your group.

It's not the most intuitive interface -- I would have preferred a simple right-click on the Nav Pane, then select "Add Group" or something, but the current design works.

Most Access apps are so small developers don't need groupiing, but not too long ago I heard about a massive Access app used by the St Louis Airport that has over 2,000 database objects in it (I haven't any idea why he hasn't broken this out into smaller front-ends!). You can see the value of logically grouping objects in this size of application. It's cool that it lets you put dissimilar objects into each group -- that keeps all the "functionally" related items together. You know how hard it is, sometimes, to know which queries go with which forms and reports -- this is, at least, one way to group these objects. (Personally, I believe logical grouping is better done with a strong prefix naming convention but I like how the Nav Pane groups things.

Viewing an object's details in the Nav Pane is a real PITA -- I still have discovered how you can easily tell which form is newer than some other form. I really wish the Nav Pane supported columns so we could see modification and creation dates easily. Or, perhaps a tool to quickly generate a datasheet view of objects and their primary properties for maintenance purposes?