Introduction
Part I The Basics of Access Development
1 Access as a Development Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 What Every Developer requirements to Know About Databases and Tables . . . . . . . 75
3 Relationships: Your Key to Data Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4 What Every Developer requirements to Know About Query Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5 What Every Developer requirements to Know About Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
6 What Every Developer requirements to Know About Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7 What Are Macros, and When Do You Need Them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8 VBA: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
9 Objects, Properties, Methods, and Events Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
10 Advanced Form Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
11 Advanced Report Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
12 Advanced Query Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
13 Advanced VBA Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
14 Exploiting the Power of Class Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
15 What Are ActiveX Data Objects, and Why Are They Important?. . . . . . . . . . 671
Part II What to Do When Things Don’t Go as Planned
16 Debugging: Your Key to Successful Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
17 Error Handling: Preparing for the Inevitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
18 Optimizing Your Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Part III Developing Multiuser and Enterprise Applications
19 A Strategy to Developing Access Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
20 Using External Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847
21 Access 2007 and SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883
22 Developing Multiuser and Enterprise Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909
00_0672329328_FM.qxd 5/4/07 9:23 AM Page iii
Part IV Black Belt Programming
23 Working with and Customizing Ribbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935
24 Automation: Communicating with Other Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949
25 Exploiting the Power of the Windows API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
26 Creating Your Own Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011
27 Using Builders and Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1027
28 An Introduction to Access and the Internet/Intranet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1055
Part V Adding Polish to Your Application
29 Documenting Your Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
30 Maintaining Your Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
31 Database Security Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
The following appendixes are available for download
at www.samspublishing.com/title/0672329328.
Part VI Appendixes
A Naming Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PDF:1131
B Table Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PDF:1137
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193
About The Author
Alison Balter has been programming, teaching, and writing about Access for more than 12 years, since the release of Access 95. She is the author or co-author of ten books on Access. Alison is a regular speaker at conferences worldwide. She is the founder of InfoTechnology Partners, Inc. Her clients include Shell Oil, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Southern California Edison, Accenture, Prudential Insurance, and the International Cinematographer's Guild.
Reader Reviews
Once again Sams Publishing takes the award for sloppy technical editing. On page 2, "Included in the text and on the sample code CD-ROM is a generic error handler that you cab easily build into any of your won applications". You guessed it, there is no CD included with this book. On page xxxxiii, "The following appendixes are available for download at www.samspublishing.com/title/0672329328". If you guess that there are no such files or opportunity to download them on this web page, you would be right. Where can we obtain the book's naming conventions appendix and the table structures to all the tables she develops in the book, for those of us who do not relish repetitive typing. Shortcomings that mar what otherwise would be an excellent book.