What's new in Access 2007?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig Alexander Morrison
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Craig Alexander Morrison

I have been using Beta 2 for the last fortnight and I am still asking myself
the question - What is -really- new in Access 2007?

They have spent all their time fiddling with the UI and have added no
significant new features.

If you take an objective look at Access 97 and Access 2007 it would be hard
to believe that the largest software company in the world had taken 10 years
to arrive at this.

They have just published the Access 2007 specifications and it would appear
nothing significant has changed.
 
Craig said:
If you take an objective look at Access 97 and Access 2007 it would be hard
to believe that the largest software company in the world had taken 10 years
to arrive at this.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the changes to the data engine since Access 97/Jet 3.51:

Description of the new features that are included in Microsoft Jet 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;275561

Access 12's new data engine
http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2005/10/13/480870.aspx

Jamie.

--
 
Goodness, Craig, I think you might be on your own with that comment. I'm
still trying to come to terms with all the new stuff in there, and feeling a
little overwhelmed.

By "fiddling with the UI", I presume you are talking about the ribbon and
possibly the navigation pane. Perhaps they are the most obvious things you
see first up, but did you dig below that?

There's a bunch of new field types related to complex data (multi-value
fields and attachments.) Whether you like that or not, it is a whole new
block of engine-level functionality. My current understanding of the field
types is listed here:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-49.html

Did you see the new templates, and the support for templates for the first
time?

Did you see how table and fields can be added from stock styles that match
your business rules?

Did you dig as far as macros that support error handling, and display their
arguments? This could be very useful, and actually does provide workarounds
for scenarios that need to be code-free.

Did you test the Sharepoint connection features? If not, you might be
interested in Clint Covington's explanation of the new features here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20060413AccessCC/manifest.xml

Did you see the new popup calendar for entering dates?

Did you see how you can right-click a combo to drill-down to the data behind
it?

Did you see how reports are interactive?

Did you see the new filter options in forms?

Did you see Access 2007 yet? I've not even started to scratch the surface.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

message
news:[email protected]...
 
If you bear in mind I said "significant"; that I am not a corporate user and
I like to think I know how to design a relational database (atomic values
all that) and have used DB2 (from MVS to UDB) for 20 years.

I am still left wondering What's new, that's really significant to me?

BTW The UI fiddling has broken 31 of our delivered applications, so I
suppose that is significant (wg), you know the ones with large forms and a
menubar. The older ones developed for SVGA just about look at home but that
seems a bit regressive to me. Cannot wait to get out the old VGA designs
they'll look great! (vbg)

Now if only Toshiba would hurry up and release a 26 Inch Widescreen Laptop
(2560 by 1600) in time for the launch of the 2007 Office System. ;-)
 
BTW The UI fiddling has broken 31 of our delivered applications, so I
suppose that is significant (wg)
Click to expand...

Well, it still is beta...
, you know the ones with large forms and a menubar.
Click to expand...

You can either collopase the ribbion bar. (just double click on any of the
"tabs" of the menu bar, and you get hte room back). I am not sure if you can
do this "collopase" in code yet. And, if you don't convert to the a2007
format, then your custom menu bars etc still work as before

As others mentioned, it been quite a awhile that so many new featuers been
added to a release.

A few more things:

Hey, the scroll wheel now works in the code editor!!!

Tabbed Document Mode (SDI)

New Navigation Pane

PDF and XPF export - of course with Adobe threatening a lawsuite, this one
looks like it will be cut out

Create Data Collection E-mail (you build a email, and the respones come back
to your database).

Editable Value Lists

Customizable caption for the Record Navigation UI

Field Templates

Filter on open, sort on open properties

Totals row

Better clipboard support for copy and paste from Excel

Control Auto-Resize and Anchoring

Report Browse Mode

Design in Browse Mode for Forms and Reports

New Sorting, Grouping, and totals task pane

Split Views

Binding image control to UNC path

A new image control that solves "bloat" when you place a picture in a form
(finally - ms-access can handle images!!!)

Transparent buttons

Transparency on tab backgrounds

Caption for datasheet headers

Improved AutoFormat (in beta 2)

Right click options for creating totals and groups

Rich Text
 
What's new to me is having code that runs fine in Access 2003 not run at all
in Access Beta 2007. Even inserting a breakpoint in form_load procedure
doesn't have an effect.
 
Did you tell A2007 it is safe to run your code?

Click the Microsoft Office Button (top left).
Click Access Options (bottom of dialog.)
Choose Trust Center, and click Trust Centre Settings.
Under Trusted Locations, add your folder.
Under Macro Settings, choose Enable All.
 
Well, it at least it breaks now. Unfortunately I had already deleted my old
code and started fresh (not a big deal in this case). After this is complete
I'll try an old version to see if it was the settings or my code.

Thank You

Eric
 
Is this something that will be required to be set on all client PCs?? If so,
this is a serious PITA from an admin point of view.
 
Susan, it should be possible to script an install so that trusted locations
are specified.
 
Good morning Allen,

Sure it's possible - it's also possible to do using Group Policies, add to
logon script, etc. But what I was thinking of is the people who create an
Access db and are doing as I did - learn by doing, figure it out as I go,
with no formal training etc. Personally, being the Sys Admin it's not a
problem for myself, but not everyone who gets an Access app dropped in their
laps has Domain Admin privileges, or an extensive scripting background.

Security is a good thing, yes - but sometimes it can drive you nuts getting
things to work.

<grin>

SusanV
 
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