The MS Access programming language is based on VisualBasic.

Also, the selected font applies to all fields (columns). There is no way to set different fonts for different fields - such as proportional for comments and courier for numbers. (That's very lame.)

There is no way to bold individual characters in a memo field.

(Paradox does not have any of these problems. :) But it does use a Formatted Memo field to allow character formatting.)

In a form, each field can have its own font.

From the Toolbox, select More Controls / Microsoft Common Dialog Control, version 6.0.

  ActiveXCtl0.DialogTitle = "Import Text Data"
  ActiveXCtl0.Flags = cdlOFNHideReadOnly
  ActiveXCtl0.ShowOpen

Create a new Table
  CurrentDB.Execute("select * into xx from yy"), dbFailOnEror

Append to an existing table
  CurrentDB.Execute("Insert Into xx select * from yy"), dbFailOnEror

  Dim dbsA As Database
  Set dbsA = CurrentDB

Warning: If Form.DataEntry is set to yes, then no existing data will be displayed!

Neither of these appears on the list of Text Box Control Properties. (What worthless help. As usual, if you don't know the answer, don't bother looking for it in the help :( I found this by clicking on DefaultValue / See Also / Value Property. Sometimes you're lucky, this time it took 4 hours.

  "select * " & _
  "into  [New table] " & _
  "from  [Some table] " & _
  "where [Test case id]='" & [Test case id].value & "'"

  &  - string concatenate
  [] - use brackets to indicate an identifier (name) which
       contians spaces (field name or component name)
  _  - line continuation code (space/underscore)
  '  - single quote required when entering string values 
       in a select statement

  The where clause compares a value in a table 
  with a value on the form

Actually, the code is very simple, 3 hrs to figure it out (more worthless help). FindFirst accepts a criteria string used to find the record. However, FindFirst can not be used on the form. Instead, you clone the current recordset, find the record, then use the bookmark variables to synchronize the display. (Found in the RecordsetClone help. No pointers from any place logical.)

  Form.RecordsetClone.FindFirst _
     "[Table Field Name]='" & [FormField_UIText].value & "'"
  Form.Bookmark = Form.RecordsetClone.Bookmark

Oh yes, the help is not quite complete - If you are using an "attached" combobox to search for an existing record, then you must include Form.Undo.

Private Sub FirmName_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
  Cancel = True
  Form.RecordsetClone.FindFirst _
     "[Table Field Name]='" & [FormField_UIText].value & "'"
  Form.Undo
  If RecordsetClone.NoMatch Then
    MsgBox "Record not found"
  Else
    Form.Bookmark = Form.RecordsetClone.Bookmark
  End If
End Sub

Forms!FormName.object
Forms![Form Name].object       Use brackets if the name contains a space
Me!object                      Refers to the form that the code is in
Form.object                    Uses the Form property
Screen.ActiveForm.object       Refers to the form with input focus


Screen.ActiveControl           Refers to the control with input focus

formProperty                   Refers to the propery or control/object
object                         without explicitly naming the form

  object.method                . - Use before methods and properties

  collection!userDefinedName   ! - Use before any name you created
                                   Normally, these are members of a 
                                   collection

  [Some Name]                  Brackets indicate a
                                 Table, Query, Form, Report, Field, Control
                               These are required if the name contains 
                               a space, otherwise, they are optional
                               In the query builder, these are NOT optional -
                               when they are omitted, the text is treated 
                               as a string and placed in double quotes

  #1-30-00#                    Pound signs indicate a date

  "Some text"                  Double quotes indicate a string

This is one of the main differences between Paradox and MS Access - Paradox uses aliases to link tables. Actually, Access allows ODBC links (aliases) to be used EXCEPT when linking to other MS Access databases. Then only explicit links are allowed. This is the best reason I know NOT to use MS Access.

Why is this so important? Well, I want to develop a report (or form or query) using a copy of the live data (you never want to develop anything using a live database). When the database is copied, the links need to be changed to point to the copy. After the report is developed, the link must be changed again to point to the live data. This is accomplished via the MS Access menu. Select

   Tools / Add-Ins / Linked Table Manager

• MS Access 2000 databases can not be read with MS Access 98
• MS Word 2000 documents can not be read with MS Word 98

However, if the government ever allowed a monopoly to do this, it could cripple our economy while making some company very rich.

Actually, there is a work around to this, simply store your data in tables formatted for the older version of Access. However, you will still need separate Forms and Reports for each version on your network.

The maximum number of characters allowed for

• A table name - 64
• A field name - 64

In order to produce a pick list for a field, set the Field Data type to Text and on the Lookup tab, set

Row Source Type	Value List
Row Source	"Table";"Form";"Report";"Query"

You can link tables using Tools / Relationships..., however, only one "Relationship" can be defined. I want several and a way to print it.

Dim ctl As Control

' Enumerate Controls collection.
For Each ctl In frm.Controls
  ' Check to see if control is text box.
  If ctl.ControlType = acTextBox Then
  ' Set control properties.
  End If
Next ctl

' The following line produces and error
SomeValue.text = AnotherValue.Text

' Instead you must set the focus before accessing the values
Dim tempxx

SomeValue.SetFocus
tempxx = SomeValue.Text

AnotherValue.SetFocus
AnotherValue.Text = tempxx + 5

Delphi	Access
sizeof()	len()	Size of a variable
dword	Long
Form1.Handle	Form.hWnd	A Windows handle
^xx	Not Available However, there is a cheat.	Pointer to a function

Acheiving Callback Functionality in Access 97 and Office 97 has source code in an Excel spreadsheet.

It was pretty hard to find references on this - most of the relavent search results pointed to missing pages.

URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Languages / MSAccess97.html