This a comprehensive collection of problems, solutions,and practical examples for the Access power user or programmer who is running up against some of the apparent limits of the Access user interface or of Access application development. The diverse problems and solutions presented here should be of interest to Access power users and programmers at all levels, from the relatively inexperienced to the most sophisticated. Each of the book's 14 chapters focuses on a particular topic area related to the Access environment or Access programming. Within each chapter, individual items follow a standardized format. The authors first pose the problem, and then present its solution. Finally, a discussion follows, which consists of extended analysis of the solution, an insightful examination of how Access works, or interesting programming techniques that are used in the solution but that you can also apply elsewhere. The kinds of problems posed and solved in the book include the following: specifying query criteria at runtime, rather than at design time; restricting the user to a single row of a form; preventing a report from printing if it has no records; making slow forms run faster; ensuring that user interface objects present a uniform, consistent appearance; controlling a printer's paper source programmatically; referencing data from multiple SQL server databases in a single Access Data project page; and using contact information from an Access database when sending email using Outlook. The accompanying CD-ROM includes Access databases that contain the solutions for all problems presented in the text.
Andy Baron is a senior consultant at MCW Technologies, a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) since 1995, and a contributing editor for Advisor Media and Pinnacle Publications. Andy is co-author of the Microsoft Access Developers Guide to SQL Server (Sams), and he writes and presents courseware for Application Developers Training Co.
Ken Getz is a senior consultant with MCW Technologies and splits his time between programming, writing, and training. He specializes in tools and applications written in Visual Studio .NET and Visual Basic. Ken is co-author of best-selling several books, including Access 2002 Developer's Handbooks with Paul Litwin and Mike Gunderloy, Visual Basic Language Developer's Handbook with Mike Gilbert, and VBA Developer's Handbook with Mike Gilbert (Sybex). He co-wrote several training courses for Application Developer's Training Company (www.appdev.com), including VB.NET, ASP.NET, Access 2000 and 97, Visual Basic 6, and Visual Basic 5 seminars.He has also recorded video training for AppDev covering VB.NET, ASP.NET, VB6, Access 2000, and Access 97. Ken is a frequent speaker at technical conferences and spoken often at Microsoft's Tech-Ed conference. Ken's also a technical editor for Access-VB-SQL Advisor magazine and a columnist for Informant Publications' asp.netPRO magazine.
Paul Litwin is the president of Litwin Consulting, providing development, mentoring, and training in ASP, ASP.NET, Visual Basic, SQL Server, XML, Microsoft Access, and related technologies. Paul was the founding editor of the Smart Access Newsletter and recently became the editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO Magazine(www.aspnetpro.com). He is the author of a number of books, articles, and training materials on Access, VBA, Web development, ASP, and ASP.NET. Paul is one of the founders of Deep Training, a developer-owned training company providing training on Microsoft.NET (www.deeptraining.com). He is the conference chair of Microsoft ASP.NET Connections (www.asp-connections.com) and Office Developer Connections (www.msofficeconnections.com) and speaks regularly at other industry events, including Microsoft TechEd and Microsoft Office Deployment and Development Conference.
