Office Watch reader, Meredith M. asks a question we’ve heard many times before. Why can’t you buy individual Office programs instead of paying for an Office bundle with programs you don’t need? “My issue: I need ONLY Word, Excel and Access–but I NEED them. I know that I cannot buy them separately but does anyone […]
The Windows clipboard is quite limited but there’s a better one hiding inside Microsoft Office for Windows. It can collect more items, paste in any order and be cleared when you like. We’ll also show how to keep the sometimes annoying pane out of the way. You’re about to hear more about the clipboard because […]
Microsoft has announced some truly important improvements in what you get with Office 365 Home, Personal and University plans. The Home plan will be available for six family members instead of five. How Microsoft calculates use of Office software is changing and for the better. All these changes apply from 1 October 2018 onwards for […]
Here’s what we know about the Office 2019 for Windows. There’s a matching page about Office 2019 for Mac. Before you get too excited Do NOT buy Office 2019 if you have Office 365 like Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal or an enterprise plan. In other words, you pay for Office as an annual fee. […]
Here’s what we know about Office 2019 for Mac. There’s a matching page about Office 2019 for Windows. We’ll update this page as new information becomes available. Before you get too excited Do NOT buy Office 2019 if you have Office 365 plan like Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal or an enterprise plan. In […]
The latest Office 2016 Insiders release version 1808, Build 10730.20030 shows off some upcoming additions to Outlook, Access, Project and Visio Outlook – block forwarding in meeting invitations When making a meeting invitation in Outlook, go to Response Options and deselect ‘Allow Forwarding’ to stop that invitation being forwarded to others. ‘Allow Forwarding’ defaults on. […]
Microsoft seems to be moving towards a name change for ‘Office 2016’. They haven’t announced anything directly, but their documentation is changing for Windows and perhaps Office for Mac as well. If you’re confused, don’t feel bad because Redmond isn’t making it easy. They are moving gradually towards naming Microsoft Office as a service instead […]
Patch Tuesday included the usual bug fixes for more security holes in Microsoft Office plus an important Adobe PDF reader update. The Microsoft Office updates should be applied automatically but the Adobe Reader might need a manual update, instructions below. Windows bug fixes are available for Windows 10, 8.1 and 7. Overall, it’s Microsoft continuing […]
This article describes several more variations of combo boxes, making them even more useful. Linked Combo Boxes You can use a set of linked combo boxes to filter a list, making it easier to get at the specific item you want to select. As an example, in the sample database (Specialty Combo Boxes, Part 2), […]
A regular combo box that gives you a choice of an item from a list (usually displaying items from a query or table) is very useful, but sometimes you need something more. This article describes several ways to expand the utility of a combo box. Hard-Coded List Combo Box When you have a small number […]
Back in 2002 I wrote an Access Archon article dealing with reference issues, among them the problem of certain references being upgraded when a database is opened in a higher version of Access, but not downgraded when it is again opened in a lower version. You might think that over the last 16 years Microsoft […]
A new report confirms what most Microsoft Office customers know; there’s more security patches in Microsoft products, despite years of promises. Not just the latest Word, Excel and Powerpoint but even new products like the Edge browser are increasingly vulnerable. An Avecto report shows 87 vulnerabilities in 2017 – a record high. A dozen of […]
After a seven month testing period, Microsoft Office desktop programs are available for Windows 10, especially Windows 10 S users via the Microsoft Store. Until now, the cheaper Windows 10 S machines could only run the ‘Mobile’ or UWP apps not the full-featured Office desktop programs. Now Word 2016, Excel 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Outlook 2016, […]
Microsoft has released another version of Office 2016 for Windows to be tested by insiders. This one is bought and installed from the Windows 10 Store. Naturally Office-Watch.com dived in to check it out. At the moment, only some Windows Insiders and users of Windows 10S can get Office in the Windows Store. Later this […]
Microsoft’s annual giveaway of ebooks is on again. Thousands of free downloads, including Office related ebooks. The full list is on the Microsoft blog. We’ve copied the Microsoft Office related titles into a easily searchable list below. Most are in PDF format with a few in MOBI (Kindle), EPUB or XPS format. Modesty (almost) […]
This is a really screwy error message. You try to start an Office desktop program and are stopped with the message ‘This app can’t run on your PC’. Here’s the fix. To make it even stranger, some Office programs will work while others say they can’t run? We’ve seen the very latest version of Outlook […]
Everyone is talking about ransomware now that the WannaCrypt has spread like crazy across the world. These nasty viruses target your documents and precious files including Microsoft Office files and Windows backups. This is a little embarrassing for us because Office-Watch.com has just released a new book that’s suddenly become very topical. Everyday BACKUPS – […]
The Dubai font inspired us to look at the currency symbol for the United Arab Emirates – the Dirham. A quick guide for those of us who don’t know any Arabic! There’s no direct symbol for the Dirham – unlike the dollar, Euro or Yen/Yuan. The usual prefix is DH or Dhs , just plain […]
Introduction If you need to print a report, or do some other Access task, on a regular basis, you can do this using a VBScript, a batch file and the Windows Task Scheduler. This article shows how. Access Database The sample database, Scheduling Task (AA 252).mdb, has some tables from the old Northwind sample database, […]
Love or loath it, the ribbon in Microsoft Office is here to stay. You’re not stuck with the ribbon Microsoft gives you, make it work better for you. In this article, we’ll show you an example of how the ribbon is designed to suit absolute Office novices first and also with Microsoft’s marketing agenda in […]
Google has a color selector among the many features in their home page. What was once a simple web search now has a lot of tricks, including a way to select a color and read the various computer values. Search for ‘Color picker’ or https://www.google.com/?q=color+picker then move the two circles to choose the exact color […]
Introduction Back in 2004, I wrote an Access Archon article (Copying Records and Linked Records) that described a method for copying a record with possible linked data in another table, using an array based on form controls. This article describes a different approach, based on table fields rather than form controls, and also shows how […]
by Helen Fedemma Introduction Back in 2004, I wrote an Access Archon article (Copying Records and Linked Records) that described a method for copying a record with possible linked data in another table, using an array based on form controls. This article describes a different approach, based on table fields rather than form controls, and […]
Introduction Combo boxes are a handy way to select values for various purposes, such as filtering forms and reports. The row sources can be of three types; this article discusses how to select the appropriate type of row source query, and use them to open a filtered report. The Form The filter form in the […]
If you need to filter by a Text value, such as person’s name or a company name, you may run into this problem: An error caused by an apostrophe in a Text string This is because the apostrophe is a Text delimiter. The way I deal with this problem is to make a calculated field […]
Introduction Recently I had occasion to update an Access database that used a DateTimePicker ActiveX control for selecting times. This control had worked for many years (about 15 years in this case), but stopped working when the user updated to 64-bit Windows 10. I was able to replicate the functionality of the old ActiveX control […]
Introduction In my Working with Word ebook (the 4th edition is available now), there is code that lists (among other things) the document properties in a Word document. This is useful information, but sometimes you need to know which of the doc properties have actually been used; that is what the code in the sample […]
If you have a datasheet subform on an Access form, containing numeric data in some columns, you may want to have column totals at the bottom of the datasheet. You can do this easily in an Excel workbook or a Word table, using a formula, but Access does it differently. In Access 2007, column totals […]
Introduction A few years ago, in Access Archon #127, I showed how to make an Access form for entering timesheet data, which was then exported to Excel. That timesheet had combo boxes in the header to select a project and a week, and columns for entering data for the days of the week. This article […]
In previous Access Archon columns, I have discussed concatenation of dollar amounts (Access Archon #179), or children’s names and school subjects (Access Archon #230). In this article I discuss a more complex type of concatenation, where concatenation is done for sets of records filtered by three values. The Form The sample database, Complex Concatenation, has […]
If you have an unbound form, and need a quick and convenient way to write values from its controls to the appropriate fields, instead of listing every field by name, you can use this procedure, based on the assumption that each control that contains a value to be written to a field has a name […]
Here is a procedure that will close all open Outlook email messages without saving – very handy if you have just created hundreds of emails testing email creation with the Emailing Order Lists to Customers database: Public Function CloseAllEmailMessages() On Error GoTo ErrorHandler Dim appOutlook As Outlook.Application Dim ins As Outlook.Inspector […]
By Helen Feddema Access versions: 2007-2013 Level: Intermediate Access Archon #240: Introduction In a database (like the sample Northwind database) that records orders, you might want a quick and easy way to send order lists to customers. This article demonstrates how to send order lists to customers in both Plain Text and HTML format emails. […]
Q: Don Ruppel writes: “I am using Access 2010 to track my collection and have photos attached. I want to filter and list any records that do not have an attachment (photo) so I know which items that need to take photos of. Every time I try to filter the table or create a filter […]
Q: Jane writes that when she makes a new form by clicking the Form button in the Create tab of the Ribbon, all the controls are the same width, and she can’t resize them individually, as in older versions of Access. A: This is a “feature” of recent versions of Access. It is called Layout, […]
Access Archon Column #237 By Helen Feddema Access versions: 2007-2013 Level: Intermediate The Problem Back in Access 2003 and Windows XP, it was easy to make a shortcut to open a specific Access database – just right-drag the database from an Explorer pane to the Quick Launch area of the taskbar. But if you try […]
Q: Andy Walter writes: I have been using your Function BackupBackend () for a few years now (Many many thanks) but recently I have had to password protect the backend of my database to stop Mr Sticky Fingers. Unfortunately with the Password in place, I get the following Error. Not only does it not create […]
By Helen Feddema Access versions: 2007-2013 Level: Intermediate Introduction Word has a sophisticated Table of Contents feature that automatically creates a table of contents from designated headings in a document. Access reports don’t have such a feature, but I managed to create one using VBA code, custom database properties and some Word features. The Orders […]
Q: Arne Johnston writes that he has four phone number fields in a table, but that is not enough. How can he handle this better? A: For phone numbers, emails and other IDs, a separate linked table is best. I have one with just three fields: CompanyID (links to the main table), Description, and IDOrPhone. […]
Access Archon Column #234 By Helen Feddema Access versions: 2007-2013 Level: Intermediate Introduction Sometimes, when working on an Access subform, you will get the “Field Cannot be Updated” error (no error number), generally when typing the first character into a new record: The Help topic for this error is of little help, attributing the problem […]