A second chance

"In Microsoft Office Access 2007+, by default, users are not prompted to confirm changes after modifying and saving records on a form. But often you might want to prompt users to confirm their changes before the record is saved.

You can use a BeforeUpdate event procedure to display a confirmation prompt and handle a user's response to either cancel or continue with the save.

This visual how-to topic illustrates how to display a custom dialog box to prompt users to cancel or continue with saving changes to a record."

Labels: Customize, Entries, General, Reference, Tips, Tutorials

Good combo

"While working with forms, a split form can be a very useful view because you simultaneously get two views of the form that are connected to the same data source.
This demo shows you how to create a split form view where you can use the datasheet part of the form to quickly locate a record and the form portion to view or modify the record.

You will also learn how to enhance and customize a split form view to suit your needs."

Labels: Customize, Entries, Forms, General, Reference, Shortcuts, Tips, Tutorials

Truncated Numbers

Labels: Customize, Entries, General, Reference, Shortcuts, Tips, Tutorials

Fewer steps

1. While holding down the [Shift] key, select adjacent fields with data you want to copy. You can also select fields from adjacent records.
   
2. When you've finished, press Ctrl+C to copy the data.
   
3. Then, choose Edit>Paste Append (Paste>Paste Append in 2007+)
   
4. Click Yes when Access asks for confirmation.

Labels: Entries, General, Reference, Shortcuts, Tips, Tutorials

Show something

Like [Enter Name] & "*"

[Enter Name]

Labels: Customize, Entries, General, Reference, Tips, Tutorials

Disable AutoExpand

Labels: Entries, General, Reference, Tips, Troubleshoot, Tutorials

Simple exchange

1. Open the target Office document
   
   
2. Arrange both applications on the screen
   (Right-click an empty part of the Task bar and choose Tile Windows Vertically)
   
   
3. Switch to Access and select the fields or records that you want copied
   
   
4. When you've finished selecting the data, move the mouse pointer near the border of the selection until it turns into an arrow
   
   
5. Finally, drag and drop the data to your target document

Labels: Entries, General, Reference, Shortcuts, Tables, Tips, Tutorials

Change background

Function Highlight(Stat As String) As Integer
Dim ctrl As Control
On Error Resume Next
Set ctrl = Screen.ActiveControl
If Stat = "GotFocus" Then
     ctrl.BackColor = 65535
ElseIf Stat = "LostFocus" Then
     ctrl.BackColor = 16777215
End If
End Function

Labels: Customize, Entries, General, Reference, Tables, Tips, Tutorials, VBA

Empty entries

"An example might be fax numbers in a customer database. If you store a Null, it means you don't know whether the customer has a fax number.

If you store a zero-length string, you know the customer has no fax number.
Access gives you the flexibility to deal with both types of 'empty' values."

Labels: Entries, General, Reference, Tips, Tutorials

Change data display

Character

Description

0

Digit (0 through 9 entry required; plus [+] and minus [-] signs not allowed).

9

Digit or space (entry not required; plus and minus signs not allowed).

#

Digit or space (entry not required; blank positions converted to spaces, plus and minus signs allowed).

L

Letter (A through Z, entry required).

?

Letter (A through Z, entry not required).

A

Letter or digit (entry required).

a

Letter or digit (entry not required).

&

Any character or a space (entry required).

C

Any character or a space (entry not required).

, : ; - /

Decimal placeholder and thousands, date, and time separators.
(The actual character used depends on the regional settings specified in Microsoft Windows Control Panel.)

<

Causes all characters that follow to be converted to lowercase.

>

Causes all characters that follow to be converted to uppercase.

!

Causes the input mask to display from right to left, rather than from left to right. Characters typed into the mask always fill it from left to right. You can include the exclamation point anywhere in the input mask.

Causes the character that follows to be displayed as a literal character. Used to display any of the characters listed in this table as literal characters.
(For example, \A is displayed as just A.)

"Literal"

You can also enclose any literal string in double quotation marks.

Password

Setting the InputMask property to the word Password creates a password entry text box. Any character typed in the text box is stored as the character but is displayed as an asterisk (*).

"The value you entered isn't appropriate for the input mask '!\(999") "000\-0000;;_' specified for this field"